


Your Heart a Haven of Thorns

by DeviousRaptor



Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, Amputation, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Canon-Typical Violence, Chuunin Exams, Dismemberment, Eventual Romance, Gore, Haruno Sakura-centric, Hatake Kakashi is a Bad Teacher, Kishimoto did my girl wrong, Protective Haruno Sakura, Protective Uchiha Sasuke, Protective Uzumaki Naruto, Sarutobi Hiruzen Bashing, So I'm here to fix it, Strong Haruno Sakura, Summons, They all need hugs, and therapy, emotionally stunted ninja, eventually, for a little while at least, not now though they're 12, tiger summons, we're changing the timeline boys
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:27:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 45,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26136466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeviousRaptor/pseuds/DeviousRaptor
Summary: In one universe, Orochimaru's Sound team wait until Sakura has set up camp to attack. In this universe, she is not so lucky.Sakura - tired, beaten, and bloody in the Chuunin Exams - is given the chance to become something great. The price of strength is steep, but her new mentor is here to guide her on the path to protecting her teammates. And Kami help anyone who gets in the way of protecting her teammates.
Comments: 240
Kudos: 1103





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! First time writing fanfiction in a LONG time, but I'm super excited to beat my girl down and build her back up into something better than ever! Comments and Kudos are appreciated!

Sakura was panting, gasping for air in great heaving breaths that made her head spin and her stomach roll. Her feet, usually so sure of themselves, stumbled over roots and greenery. Despite the nausea and clumsiness, Sakura never once fell. She wouldn't allow herself to. She paused for just a moment to readjust her grip on Naruto and Sasuke. Her hands felt weak, fingers struggling to grasp the fabric of their legs. Sasuke was strapped onto her back, Naruto's copious supply of ninja wire helping to hold him in place. His breath was hot and humid where it hit the back of her neck, and his fever made the arms tied around her neck feel like branding irons. Naruto was similarly slung across her chest, but in her panicked haste she hadn't had time to tie him to her. Sweat poured down Sakura's back and face, and she struggled to get a grip on Naruto's legs before she -

A kunai sailed through the air, slashing through the meat of her cheek and embedding itself into the bark of the tree next to her. Three more weapons followed in its wake before Sakura could force herself to move, two senbon sailing into the vegetation around her and one sinking into her shoulder. Sakura clenched her teeth into Naruto's jacket to muffle her scream as she began to run once more, desperately hoping for someone, anyone, to find her and her team. She could hear the snickers and taunts of the Sound team above her labored breathing, see them in flashes in the undergrowth around her. They mocked her, lazily tossing weapons to herd her along in this terrifying game of cat-and-mouse.

They had found her kneeling next to her two teammates, having been wrung out from witnessing the strange Grass nin and summons tossing around the boys. Sakura had checked Naruto first, his head wound and worrying silence a bad indicator for serious head trauma. Sakura tried to see if there were any weak points in her teammate’s skull, but found only a rather nasty bump and cut. She had no basis for telling if Naruto had internal bleeding, and Sakura almost bit through her lip in frustration, hot shame curling deep in her gut.  _ Useless. _ Her first aid kit was barely stocked well enough for cuts, let alone potential brain swelling. They had never covered how to handle more serious injuries like this in the academy, simply stating to see a med nin for anything more serious than a deep cut. Should she keep him still? Move him to the center tower as quickly as possible? Try and wake him up? 

Sakura felt even more hopeless about Sasuke’s condition; seals were barely covered in the academy, and she had never even heard of seals that could induce fever and pain like this. At least Sasuke was moving and twitching around. His mumbles and fevered movements meant that he was still alive. Naruto’s condition had freaked her out with how still he was; she kept having to check if he was still breathing.

Her decision on whether or not to move was made for her, when rustling and snapping branches could be heard nearby. In hindsight, the Sound team was more than capable of killing her without notice, they had simply deemed it more entertaining to see her scramble around, sloppily tying a few strips of bandage around Naruto’s head and fastening Sasuke to her back with shaking fingers slick with sweat and her teammate’s blood. 

Her muscles burned and her joints creaked in protest of her heavy and sloppy footwork as she continued to run from her pursuers, all thought to her predicament focused solely on putting one wobbly foot in front of the other. She was pretty sure at least one of her ankles had badly twisted, not to mention the various cuts and burns across her arms and legs, senbon occasionally sticking out of her like macabre pins. 

Sakura knew that this game would end soon. The Sound nin who had ambushed her had been in pursuit for over two hours now, alternating between tossing weapons and jutsu from a distance and coming just close enough to snatch at her hair and clothes, sometimes grabbing at her ankles to make her jump and stumble. The dying light made them even more difficult to identify. While she had seen snatches of their twisted faces, and heard their crows of laughter and taunts, she could only vaguely identify 2 men and one woman, and their skill level at this game of pursuit showed that they were at least Chuunin level. 

Sakura heard the whistle of more weapons and threw herself forward in a burst of strength she wasn't sure she still had, hearing the blades go sailing past where her head had been moments before. Pink strands of hair fluttered in her wake as she stumbled forward. The jeers of the Sound kunoichi were indistinct over the wild beating of her heart and the soft pained noises both of the boys were making. They had taken their fair share of hits -  _ her fault, useless little girl _ \- and Sakura could feel the blood from a particularly nasty wind jutsu dripping down Naruto's side and down her leg.  _ Just a bit further, just a little more time _ .

One of the male Sound ninja landed next to her, the one with the large metal contraption, and he swung a wide haymaker at Sakura's head, scoffing when she only barely dodged the telegraphed move. "This is the standard Konoha holds their ninja to? They really have gotten soft."

Sakura grit her teeth and lashed out a weak kick, lunging forward to catch herself when the man inevitably hopped backwards. Sweat and blood stung her eyes and the ninja blurred in and out of focus as he threw his head back and laughed. "Oh ho! Looks like Pinky still has a bit of life left in her! Don't worry though -" he twirled a kunai between his fingers as he advanced "- we'll fix that for you".

She felt the blood drain from her face as the Sound kunoichi flanked her, appearing to melt out of the shadows in her peripheral vision. Naruto and Sasuke pulled her down like anchors, and Sakura had to lock her legs to keep from collapsing as the weight of her reality crashed down around her. Her stomach roiled as the two ninja advanced. 

Sakura's entire scope narrowed down to this moment; she could feel the tacky consistency of drying blood running down her face and side and leg. Feel the hot breath of her teammates, feel their arms holding her, seeking comfort even in their comatose states. Feel their weight, so real and heavy, an anchor that kept her tethered in the moment. Her ears were filled with the rushing of blood and the pounding staccato of her heartbeat. Sakura could make  out the individual bloodstains on the Sound ninja's shirt, see the fluttering of the kunoichi's lashes...but Sakura didn't see the third member. 

Sakura was startled out of her frozen state by that lone thought, and nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a strangled yell coming from a few dozen yards behind her. The main Sound nin glanced back and viciously cursed, abandoning his current target and flashing away so rapidly Sakura swore she saw an after image. The kunoichi tsked, and straightened up from her crouch, looking conflicted on which fight to engage with. The sounds of jutsu being released and violent thrashing seemed to make her decision for her and she bared her teeth at a trembling Sakura. " You have a 30 second head start. Better run while you still can".

Sakura was suddenly alone. The sounds of distant explosions and animalistic screeching spurred her on from her fear-induced stupor and she began to move her leaden legs. Her mind raced and she forced herself to move as fast as possible; there was no telling when her brief advantage would end. 

With the blood still dripping off her and Naruto, Sakura didn't bother trying to hide her path through the underbrush, just focusing on putting as much distance between her and the Sound team. The sun was sinking on the horizon and the long shadows of the Forest of Death played tricks with her imagination and eyes. Where was she? Was she even headed towards the center of the Forest anymore? There was nothing left for Sakura but to plow forward, each step covering less ground and the boys growing heavy on her body. She was already past her meagre limit; she had never before run so far or carried so much weight. If she wasn't so sure of her own death, Sakura would feel a sting of pride at the feat she'd accomplished today. But her frantically screaming muscles and panicked mind had no room for pride. There was only the will to survive.

As she pushed her way forward, Sakura desperately looked around for a place to hide, or at least a more defensible position. Her eyes blurred in the haze of the sunset, but in-between the dark shadows and deep green of the foliage, she saw a flash of orange. 

The Sakura of before would have taken stock of her position and verified what she was seeing from a safe distance. She would have taken to the trees and smothered her tiny chakra signature in order to assess the situation before making her move. But that Sakura was not on the verge of death, with two teammates down and chakra reserves scraped dry. All Sakura could think of right now, was that orange reminded her a lot of her rambunctious teammate and that she wished that Naruto could wake up right now so she could hug him and cry and tell him that she didn't really think he was stupid, she saw how hard he tried sometimes. But Naruto had been thrown head first into a tree and might not wake up. Naruto and Sasuke might not wake up. Eyes blurry with tears and exhaustion, Sakura burst into a small clearing, taking several more trembling steps to keep herself from overbalancing.

The first thing that Sakura registered, after she took a few ragged breaths and her vision  stopped blacking out, was a large pair of green eyes.  _ Like mine _ she thought, caught up in their deep gaze.

The second thing she noticed was the smell of death, the rich tang of iron mixed with a foul undercurrent that spoke to a terrible gut wound. A heavy scent that clung to her nostrils and hair and clothes and would have made Sakura gag had she not been fighting so hard for breath.

The third, and probably most important detail, was the fact that the pair of eyes belonged to a massive tiger the size of a draft horse, which lay sprawled out in the dying rays of sunlight, feasting on what appeared to be the remains of a Sand Gennin. 

Sakura, beaten down, exhausted, and on the verge of blacking out, was struck at the sight of the great beast. Though her instincts screamed at her to keep running, her feet stayed firm and she gaped at the vision of raw strength and beauty before her. The tiger was mostly white, with great slashes of peachy orange painted through its fur. The stripes almost seemed to writhe in the dying light of the sun, vibrant and glistening with their lustre. The tiger's eyes glowed from where they were framed in it's perfectly symmetrical face. The visage of beauty was only accentuated by the gore that fell across its face and dripped down it’s stark white chest. 

The tiger did not move or startle at her appearance, having no doubt heard Sakura coming from some ways away. The tiger simply stared, as though it was leisurely waiting for Sakura to make the first move. Sakura didn’t really know what to think or do. The only thought that crossed her mind was that they didn’t cover huge tigers in the Academy. That stray thought brought a peal of laughter out of her lips, a strikingly loud noise amidst her gasps for breath. The tiger flicked its ears but didn’t move.

Sakura’s laughter cut off as quickly as it had started and she was left with the realization that she could no longer run. As if that was all the permission it needed, her body decided to take that moment to drop. Her knees gave a sharp spike of pain from where they hit the earth, but all Sakura could feel was relief. Another funny thought.

The tiger continued to watch her as Sakura shakily placed Naruto on the ground and began to maneuver herself to the side to cut Sasuke free without dropping him. All of Sakura’s previous haste had fled, instead replaced with the calm reality that she was not making it out alive, so why bother to panic? She snapped the ninja wire holding up Sasuke and made sure he was curled on his side into the recovery position. Meticulous, even this close to death. 

Without the weight of her teammates pulling heavily on her, she could stand again, though Sakura didn’t feel the need to move from where she was kneeling in between her two boys. Sakura simply pulled out one of her few remaining kunai and locked eyes with the tiger again.

The animal hadn’t moved during that time. Simply staring at the almost reverent movements of Sakura placing her teammates down. It held her gaze, seemingly content to watch for now. From a much calmer perspective, Sakura could pick out the finer details of the clearing. There were two other Sand team members sprawled out in the foliage behind the tiger, both already picked through and scraped clean. Sakura remembers a bit in a book she once read, where it said that the tongues of big cats are really rough in order to strip bones of their flesh more easily. The third Gennin lay between the paws of the tiger, their skull partially crushed under the weight of a single massive paw. Sakura is a bit glad for that fact, if only because she doesn’t want to see the Gennin’s face.

Sakura almost startles when she realizes that they’ve been staring at each other in total silence. Sakura should still be able to hear the sounds of the Sound team fighting, unless they had already finished off whatever had attacked them. She is just about to stand up when movement from the tiger has her freezing again, warily eyeing the beast. It’s leaned forward slightly, large nose wrinkling upwards to take in a huff of air and jaw parting. “Awfully young to be out in these woods, child.”

Sakura does startle at that.

The tiger eyes her scrambling form as she frantically grabs for the kunai she just dropped. It seems to run a critical eye over her trembling form. While the voice was decidedly feminine, the deep base sends a shiver up Sakura’s back and she can’t stop herself from wheezing out a reply. “I’m taking the Chuunin exams.” 

The tiger’s gaze narrows. “You are too young and too small. Better ninja than you have died here in these woods.”

Her words are emphasized with a sickening crack, as her massive paw crushes the rest of the Sand nin’s skull. Sakura is paralyzed with fear for a moment, before a surge of rage makes her see red. How dare this tiger lecture her about what makes a better ninja. The frustration and anger at her situation builds within Sakura’s chest, stoking a white hot ember. She leaps to her feet, clearly surprising the huge beast in front of her. “Whether or not people die isn’t based on skill! Great ninja die all the time! Terrible ninja live all the time! Sasuke was top of the class but that Grass nin still hurt him! There’s always gonna be someone better than me and that’s not gonna stop me from keeping me and my team alive!” 

Sakura furiously rips out the senbon littering her body, emphasizing her words with each needle that leaves her skin. “I’m! Not! Giving! Up!”

Sakura is panting again, the force of her anger and embarrassment making her stomach roil and her face burn. She’d gotten this far, and had almost given up. She had hauled both teammates for hours through the Forest of Death only to drop them at the feet of this tiger. Sakura may have cowered in fear before, but by Kami she was going to hold her ground against  this overgrown housecat.

The tiger’s eyes were wide as it took in Sakura’s newfound strength and grit. Though her legs shook and her head was spinning from standing up too fast, Sakura made sure that she met the tiger’s stare with the fiercest glare she could muster. It regarded her carefully, eyes flicking over wounds and her trembling fingers. Sakura could feel her strength ebbing away, though she fought desperately to stay standing. The tiger’s ears flicked again. “You’re on your last leg, do you even have the strength to fight those ninja who were after you?”

Sakura just snarled wordlessly, tightening her numb fingers over the handle of her kunai. The tiger seemed pleased with this response, and it’s eyes flashed in the dying light of the sun.

Sakura could hear the distant sound of someone calling out, and vaguely recognized the voice of the main male Sound nin. The tiger’s gaze flickered over her shoulder, then back to Sakura. “You’re certainly not what I suspected. Much stronger of will. But still not enough to take out those ninja following you.”

Before Sakura could retort, the tiger lifted itself gracefully to its feet, stepping delicately around it’s unfinished meal and padding towards Sakura. Towering above her, Sakura could now fully grasp the size of the animal, the tiger having to lower it’s massive head in order for their eyes to be level. Sakura could see her own reflection in those eyes, blood streaking down a face still lined with baby fat. The tiger’s breath was hot and rancid with blood, just a few feet away now, but Sakura didn’t dare move a muscle.

It held her gaze for a few more moments, before speaking again, the rumble of it’s deep voice vibrating through Sakura’s bones. “Do you know what it is that tigers value most? It is not strength, not cunning; no weapon or jutsu will impress us. We are not swayed by acts of valor nor trickery. Tigers are rare and sought after beasts. We are hunted and feared and worshipped in equal measure. What tigers value above all is endurance.”

Sakura could hear the approaching Sound team, but it was distant, like she was listening through thick glass or deep water.

“We thrive in the most dangerous of environments, in climates that only the strongest animals can call their home. Our prey are often just as dangerous as we are, and the hunters on our tails just as crafty. And when cornered, we fight until one of us is dead. We endure.”

Sakura could see the flecks of gold in the tiger’s eye, like bright embers in a forest.

“I will help you. I will give you my strength, my cunning, my protection, my endurance. What will you give me?”

Sakura could feel the warmth of the dying sun’s rays on her face, feel the heat of her  teammates as they curled around her feet, feel the oppressive weight of chakra settle over her like an ancient cloak, weaving through her skin and grounding her tightly to the grove around her. Her blood sang with the wind around her and the chakra of the beast in front of her enveloped Sakura in it’s strong embrace.

In some distant part of her mind, Sakura ran through her meagre list of offerings. She was physically weak, book smart with useless knowledge, and had a tiny scrap of a chakra pool.

But the tigers valued none of those things.

Sakura came to a slow realization that took her breath away, but didn’t frighten her as it should have. As it would have frightened her only a few hours ago. She met the waiting gaze of the tiger, no, of the tiger summons in front of her.

Sakura held up her left arm. She felt like she was playing a part in some cosmic play. “I will give you part of me. I will give myself to you, to teach how you see fit.”

The last thing Sakura saw was the tiger’s pleased grin and a deep yellow glow from behind huge fangs, and then her world was overtaken by darkness and white-hot pain.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura comes to terms with her new reality and her summons comes to terms with the fact that she's gonna kick Kakashi's ass

Sakura was drifting in and out of consciousness, fluttering between deep sleep and barely awake. The agonizing pain spreading in waves from her left side drew her further awake and sent her tumbling back into sleep in equal measures. Time didn't matter in this state. At one point, Sakura blearily recognized the feeling of bodies lying next to her. The familiar warmth of her teammates curled around her. When did they move? Did they wake up? Sakura didn't have the mental strength to contemplate for long and she slipped back into unrestful sleep reluctantly, lulled by a strange rumbling vibration settling just behind her rib cage.

After hours, or maybe days, of fitful drifting, Sakura forced her eyes open. The haze of pain that washed over her made her thinking slow. She gazed listlessly at the canopy above her for several minutes before realizing that she was still in that clearing from before. The ache of overworked muscles made her consider going back to sleep, but the unsettling feeling of losing time grounded Sakura to the present. She had been unconscious for who knows how long; anyone could have stumbled on her team and attacked.

She forced her head to turn to the side, slowly grinding her scalp into the dirt. Her skull must be weighed down with lead, for all the difficulty she was having.

Naruto was curled into her right side, clutching tightly to her arm and pressing his face to her shoulder. He was drooling onto the filthy sleeve of her quipao dress, face lax in sleep. Sakura's breath quickened and she was overwhelmed with relief. She raked her eyes over Naruto's face and upper body, taking in a few cuts and scrapes, feeling his shallow puffs of breath where they warmed her skin. He was alive. Still asleep, but alive. She whipped her head around to her other side, where she could feel a similar warmth. Sasuke was similarly curled around her left thigh, his head pressed into her hip and his fevered panting now audible to her ears. He wasn't clutching her arm because. Because.

Sakura stared down. She should be able to feel his hair, because that's right where her hand should lay. His trembling body filled the void in the space by her side. She should be able to reach out and run her fingers over his fevered brow. Should be. But she couldn't because. Because.

Her arm ended a few inches down from the shoulder joint.

Sakura stared. The wound was cut clean through, as though by some sort of large blade and not the teeth of a giant tiger. A large angry burn worked its way up from the cutoff point, cauterizing the opening and keeping the wound from bleeding out. Sakura could feel the pulsing pain from the burn scab and the sharper white-hot pain of her severed nerves washing over her in waves, making her whole left side throb and burn. Her arm was just gone. 

Sakura felt her mind grind to a halt, processing the information. Without an arm, her Academy kata were useless. She wouldn't be able to block hits on that side, wouldn't be able to throw with her left arm.  _ At least I can write and throw better with my right arm,  _ Sakura thought with no small amount of hysteria. She could feel tears spill out over her cheeks and her throat grow hot and tight with fear and loss and a sharp burst of self-loathing.

She startled at the feel of something heavy and soft placing itself over her forehead.  _ I've got to stop being startled so much  _ she thought as she craned her head backwards, wincing at the ache in her neck and spine. The tiger from before looked down at her, expression unreadable but it's ears twitching. The creature was laying at her head, it's great form stretched around Sakura and her teammates like a buffer of fur and muscle. It had cleaned itself at some point, all blood and gore gone from it's white fur. 

It removed it's paw from Sakura's head gently, careful of the huge claws that extended several inches out from its fur. Sakura's breath stuttered in her chest as the tiger lowered it's head down and roughly licked the tears off her cheeks. As though a dam had burst, Sakura broke down into great heaving sobs, the shuddering of her body jarring what was left of her arm, prompting further tears.

Sakura wasn't sure how long her meltdown lasted, struggling as she was to grasp her new reality, and the old reality that she had refused to acknowledge. The intense pain she was in was no help, spiraling her further into hysteria and grief. Her thoughts went around and around in nauseating spirals of self-deprecation. She was a civilian-born ninja with no real obvious skills, poor mental conditioning, and now only one arm. Naruto had fought off a giant snake! Sasuke had looked so brave fighting off the Grass nin that Sakura was sure was at least Jounin level. Sakura had cried and run and gotten hurt and then had her arm eaten. She had always tried to shrug off her feelings of inadequacy. She had always known she was the weakest link of team 7. Why did she have to be picked to be a teammate to Sasuke and Naruto? They were so far ahead of her and she could never fully measure up-

Her thoughts were abruptly halted when the tiger's paw landed on her head again, this time with a bit more force. The great beast had its eyes narrowed at her, the first hint of teeth peeking out from under its lips. "Enough. You have mourned for your past failures and limitations. It is time for you to get up."

Sakura let out an undignified shriek as the tiger shoved its muzzle under Sakura's upper back, forcing her to sit up. Her vision swayed as blood rushed from her head, but she was quick to try and scramble up as the tiger made a move to boost her with its head again. But her attempt to stand was cut painfully short as she listed heavily to her left side, having thrown out her arm to help her stand only to find no support. The burning shriek of her wounds made her muscles seize, and Sakura grit her teeth through the fresh wave of tears that rolled down her face. She shakily steadied herself on Sasuke's shoulder where she'd fallen, and slowly maneuvered herself to standing.

She corrected her posture before she could start leaning again, unaccustomed to the dramatic decrease in weight on her left side. Her legs shook with the strength required just to stand. If she looked straight ahead, Sakura could almost swear she felt her left hand grasping at the hem of her dress, tingles running up and down the empty space at her side. She had read about this sensation before, a 'phantom limb'. 

Sakura was shaken from her musings by the tiger standing. It stretched its front limbs out and let out a huge yawn. Its fangs were longer than her hand, and it could have easily stretched out over the entire length of her living room. As Sakura watched the creature - the tiger summons - she realized that she had no idea what to do with a tiger, let alone a summoning tiger. Did she order it around? Did she let it do what it wanted? Did she say nothing and hope for the best? 

The tiger once again interrupted Sakura's musings. "My name is Kikyō."

Sakura blinked. So it -she- had a name. So she must be fully intelligent, probably more so than Sakura at this point. That answered a few of Sakura's questions."I'm, uh, Haruno Sakura."

The tiger raised an elegant brow. "Why so unsure? Is it a false name you have given me?"

Sakura blanched, hastening to rectify her stuttering mistake. "No! I'm Haruno Sakura. I was just a bit surprised. Uh, surprised that you were still here when I woke up."

Both of the tigers' brows were raised, and though Sakura still couldn't parse the expression on her face, she knew a glare when she saw one. "That would have been irresponsible of me to leave you and your litter mates here. You are all injured or incapacitated in some way and I will not stand to lose my summoner to something as simple as the elements."

It was Sakura's turn to give a strange look. "Litter mates?"

"You are all cubs around the same age. Perhaps not of the same brood, but I find that most humans tend to pick and choose their own families. These  _ are _ your litter mates, yes?"

Sakura looked down to where Sasuke and Naruto lay, both undisturbed by the noise and movement around them. They looked so much smaller than she remembered. "Yeah. They're my litter mates."

Kikyō nodded decisively. "I thought as much. You all smell like each other and your chakra signatures all seem to know one another. I checked over all your injuries while you slept. I have done all I can to keep your arm from bleeding and being further injured, but you will have to see someone who specializes in medical chakra to have it fully healed. The blonde one seems to be healing fine on his own, though I don’t know when he will wake. The dark haired one is a much tougher case.” Kikyō frowned to herself. “I do not specialize in seals, and I am not personally familiar with any of the tigers that do. To ask favor of them would indebt us to them, and I would rather not subject you to that when our bond is so fresh.” 

Sakura put aside some of the tiger’s stranger words to parse through later. What she had to focus on now was getting her and her team out of this forest. “Um, hey Kikyō, do you know where the tower at the center of the forest is?”

“I am familiar with its location, though I have never been there. I am perfectly capable of leading us to it.”

Sakura felt a weight lift off her shoulders. Ok, so that was one thing that she didn’t have to worry about. The only other thing now was- “We don’t have any scrolls.”

Kikyō furrowed her brow. “What type of scrolls do you require? I can bring a few sealing scrolls from my personal collection if they are truly necessary.”

Sakura shook her head. “No, it’s the exam. Our task in the forest was to get a Heaven and Earth scroll and make it to the center of the forest. We had a Heaven scroll, but that weird Grass nin threw it away. If we want to make it to the next round we have to find some other teams and force them to give us their scroll. I could probably convince Ino-pig and her team to help us, but she’d probably make me work with her at the shop for at least a month in return, but that shouldn’t be too much of an issue if-”

Kikyō huffed out a strange sound, and Sakura realized she had begun to pace in frustration, ignoring her new companion in favor of logistics. Sakura could feel her face burn as the tiger huffed out another heavy breath. “As clever as you seem to be, you have also forgotten what is right in front of you.”

The tiger lifted a massive paw and gestured to the other side of the clearing. When Sakura turned, she could see the stacked bodies of Kikyō’s meal the day before. There were distinctly more bodies than there had been when Sakura first arrived, and she could make out the dull gleam of the metal contraption that had been present on the male Sound nin’s arm.

Sakura was struck once again with the realization that the tiger before her could kill her and her team with very little trouble. Kikyō could have killed Sakura before she even set foot in this clearing. But she didn’t. Something had made her stop and listen to a little pink haired girl yell about her teammates and death and not giving up.

“Sakura? Would you like me to search for the scrolls instead? I understand it is a bit distasteful to pick through someone else’s meal scraps, and I am unsure if a cub of your age has dealt with bodies before.”

Sakura turned her gaze to meet the tiger’s. This creature had given Sakura a chance. Had seen something in her that Sakura didn’t even see. That her teammates and her sensei didn’t see. Sakura hoped that Kikyō would tell her what it was she saw. She’d like to write it down and then wake up every morning and make sure that she followed it through. “I’ve got it Kikyō. Thanks.”

Sakura could feel the gaze of the big cat weighing heavy on her back, but she didn’t turn around to see. That bravery followed her all the way up until Sakura was a few feet from the bodies, and then the smell hit her and Sakura had to turn to the side in order not to throw up all over her sandals. She could feel herself being gently maneuvered out of the way as she fought to gag up what little bile was in her empty stomach. Her muscles contracted painfully and she was only now aware of just how hungry and thirsty she was. Her legs were trembling. Something landed softly, but instantly on her shoulder and she followed it down until she was kneeling in the dirt, feeling a bit more grounded. Sakura could hear Kikyō shifting through the bodies behind her, but focused instead on breathing through her mouth and not throwing up a second time.

By the time Sakura could stand under her own power again, Kikyō had finished rooting around and had sheparded Sakura back to her feet and over in the direction of her teammates. The tiger summons dropped two Earth scrolls at her feet and licked her chops. “Looks like I will have to go hunting again.”

Sakura’s mind went blank before she whipped around, coming face-to-chest with the tiger. She held a hand out to steady herslef, balking briefly at the size difference between her and her new summons before soldiering ahead. “Uh, Kikyō? Could you maybe, uh, not kill anyone this time? I have friends who are also taking the exam and I don’t want to find out that you ate them. Is that ok?”

Sakura’s panic had faded as she talked until she was mumbling out the last dregs of her confidence. Kikyō, despite Sakura’s fears, seemed complacent and a bit amused. “Of course. I’m still quite full anyways. Stay alert here until I return. If you are attacked by any other ninja, flare your chakra out as wide as you can and I’ll feel it.”

Before Sakura could protest or ask how to flare her chakra, Kikyō was gone. Not even the undergrowth stirred and Sakura felt the silence settle around her like an oppressive blanket. Her heart rate kicked up and Sakura realized that her and her teammates were out in the open. She rushed over to the boys and made to grab Naruto when she realized that this was going to be infinitely harder with only one arm. She grit her teeth against the flood of self loathing and quickly began to shove Naruto into some sort of sitting position, hugging him around the chest and dragging him backwards into the undergrowth. She almost dropped him a few times and had to keep stopping to adjust her grip. The stump of her left arm flailed uselessly for balance as she took a few final steps and shoved Naruto bodily under some wide ferns. She repeated the process with Sasuke, and was frustrated to note that his feverish twitching made her task that much harder. When she had finally shoved them both under the foliage, she then did a quick jog around the clearing, using her feet to scuff up prints and using her good arm to drag a few branches over to make more of a cover for the boys.

She panted in the shade of one of the trees for a while, surveying her meagre handiwork. There had clearly been someone here recently, but Sakura had muddled up the footprints and drag marks enough that someone who happened upon the clearing wouldn’t be able to immediately tell the direction she went in. The ferns the boys were hiding under had been disturbed and crushed in some measure, so Sakura went around the clearing again and did her best to kick up and disturb the rest of the undergrowth. She even pretended to set up a different area of cover on the other side of the clearing. There wasn’t much Sakura could do about the pile of bodies, and she didn’t really want to get too close. She settled for holding her nose and kicking up dirt over the spot she threw up earlier.

Sakura settled down in the fern patch with the two boys, squeezing herself in between branches and limbs to settle herself firmly between them both. Her leg muscles shook and jumped from even the brief few minutes of exercise, and Sakura did her best to ignore the rising tide of pain coming from her left arm. Her range of motion was even more limited than before while crouched in between the boys, but her anxiety wouldn’t let her set up watch too far from her teammates. Her ‘litter mates’. She pulled her eyes away from the foliage around her to look down at the two boys. They lay curled in their sleep, Sasuke tense and shaking and Naruto boneless and slumped. Sakura’s thoughts and feelings were strange and muddled, and she took a moment to gather herself and arrange the two Gennin into more comfortable positions. 

She had always pined after Sasuke, always wanted him to see her and be near her and acknowledge her. He was cool and strong, but he always seemed untouchable. Even wrecked through with fever and unconscious, Sakura almost couldn’t bring herself to sit too close. And though she admired him and did her best to impress him, he never really saw her for a teammate. She had idolized him but she hadn’t tried to earn his respect, just his attention. She hesitated for a brief moment before placing her hand gently on his shoulder. He hadn’t needed someone to cheer him on when that Grass nin attacked. He had needed someone to fight with him, watch his back. Sakura was the only thing keeping them safe, and she didn’t blame Sasuke if he was mad at her for how she had handled this situation. It took a sadistic team of Sound nin to get her to run more than a few minutes, and a huge tiger summon to even beat the other team. She was just as weak as he claimed her to be.

And Naruto. The dead last of the class had faced down a huge snake and won. Had thrown himself head first into the conflict when he should have been too scared to fight. Sakura had never really seen Naruto be scared. He was always loudly telling everyone his dreams, running ahead and fighting Sasuke until he couldn’t stand. He always got back up. Sakura had just lay there and cried when she realized she lost her arm. Naruto probably would have jumped up, yelling about how this wouldn’t stop him from being Hokage. 

Sakura pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them tight, trying desperately not to cry again. How was she ever going to protect them when they were already stronger than her? Already braver than her?

She watched the dappled strokes of light as they filtered through the towering canopy above her, just a few scraps of sunlight making its way through the heavy foliage and down to the earth at her feet. Sakura could feel the twitching of her left hand in the empty air, and took a deep breath. The loamy earth bunched under her filthy sandals.

She looked across the clearing. The bodies lay there just as before, flies and insects buzzing in black clouds around what little flesh and gore was left. Sakura watched the bugs crawling around, the unseeing eyes of Sound kunoichi turned up to contemplate the dappled sunlight like Sakura was doing. She felt wrung out and drained. Her feelings and thoughts having spun empty circles in her mind. She calmly eyed the bones and bodies, cataloguing the wounds she could see; broken bones and cracked skulls, snapped spines and arms akimbo. Their deaths had been quick, and their bodies had not gone to waste. The tiger - her tiger summons - Kikyō was brutal, but efficient. The tiger didn’t chase the Sound team like they had done to Sakura. She hadn’t prolonged their death, made fun of them and taunted them with hope. Kikyō had just done what she had to.

Sakura pulled her gaze away from the corpses and back to Naruto and Sasuke. If someone came on the clearing right now, Sakura wouldn’t tease them, wouldn’t play mind games with them. She couldn’t afford to. Sakura would simply take care of them, like Kikyō-shishou would.

Sasuke may be the strongest, and Naruto the bravest, but Sakura would become the fiercest. Become the most enduring.

\-----------------

Kikyō came back about 2 hours later, a Heaven scroll clutched in her jaws and a few scattered weapons barely poking out of her thick fur. She didn’t have any blood around her mouth.

Sakura stumbled gracelessly out of the brush as the tiger looked around the clearing, flicking her ears around and making another gruff, breathy noise. Sakura really needed to figure out how facial expressions worked on tigers. Kikyō lowered her massive head as Sakura began to calmly and meticulously go through her upper chest and sides where she could reach, plucking out a handful of shuriken and senbon from where they were stuck in the tiger’s thick fur. It didn’t seem as though any of the weapons had even penetrated the tiger’s skin. The massive summons shook off Sakura before she could start to try and climb the tiger to check for back wounds. The Heaven scroll landed softly in the dirt and Kikyō returned the favor by licking a few rough stripes across Sakura’s face and arm and legs. Sakura’s nose scrunched up at the sensation, but she held her tongue until the tiger seemed content with her physical state.

“I see you’ve done an...interesting job covering up our tracks here.”

Sakura huffed out a breath. “Well, you didn’t exactly tell me what I had to do. And I had to take care of the boys. And I only have one arm.”

The tiger eyed her curiously. “You were never taught how to cover your tracks?”

“Not the tracks of tigers and three people and a bunch of bodies. And blood and trampled bushes.”

The tiger just stared at Sakura and she could feel her face flush in embarrassment. The summons leaned forward and pressed a cold, wet nose to her scalp. “Don’t be ashamed. Practical knowledge is what truly cements skill into memory. That little school of yours may give you lectures but it will not prepare you for the reality. This was very good for someone who has not had any training.”

Sakura felt her embarrassment deepen. “But I’ve been out of the Academy for half a year already, I should be able to do something this easy.”

Kikyō’s brows furrowed. “You have had survival training since you have left?”

“Well...no, mostly just team building exercises and D-rank missions.”

When the tiger’s face remained blank, Sakura specified. “D-rank missions are really easy chores and tasks to help out around the village and get Gennin used to working on teams. It’s always stuff like weeding gardens, walking dogs, babysitting kids, and other stuff like that.”

The tiger flicked her ears. “You have been spending half a year doing menial tasks and team building?” Kikyō sounded incredulous.

Sakura frowned at the tone, but nodded in assent. “Kakashi-sensei mostly just has us to D-ranks. He sometimes has the boys spar, but I don’t usually get to fight.”

Sakura realized she had somehow misspoke when Kikyō bared her fangs in a deep snarl, prompting Sakura to take several steps back in shock and fear. The tiger quickly schooled it’s expression into something more manageable, and Sakura rushed to correct herself. “It’s ok! I had told sensei before that I didn’t really want to fight the boys and they kept beating me anyways so it’s kinda my fault that I wasn’t put in spars more often.”

If anything, her words seemed to enrage the tiger more, its tail lashing around and whipping up earth and leaves. Sakura cringed and was about to try and explain again when Kikyō’s deep base reverberated through the clearing, sinking into Sakura’s bones. “My anger is not directed at you, cub. Your teacher is the one I am furious with.”

Sakura blinked. “Kakashi-sensei? Why?”

“A teacher is supposed to push their students, to better them and train them for the harsh environment. A teacher that cannot or will not better their students is one that has condemned their cubs to die.” 

Sakura gaped a bit. This was going a bit far, but there was still something in the back of her mind that hissed that the tiger was right on the nose about Kakashi-sensei. “It’s not only his fault Kikyō, I should have pushed myself harder before. I didn’t always take my role as a ninja very seriously.” 

Kikyō took a large breath, calming her twitching tail and relaxing the slight snarl around her muzzle. She opened her eyes and Sakura was struck by how ancient the tiger looked in that moment. “What happened before matters little now. All that matters is the present moment.”

Two pairs of green eyes met. “You are strong of will, Haruno Sakura. Though it is a shame your spirit and strength was not cultivated until now, I will fight to my dying breath to see you forge your path to greatness.”

The question spilled out before she could hold herself back. “Why me?”

Sakura startled backwards again as Kikyō threw back her head in a roar of laughter. The tiger grinned at her, baring huge fangs and crinkling her eyes into cat-like contentment. “Because you are a tiny, pink-haired child who, after being chased for hours with dogs nipping at your heels, stood and looked me in the eye. You  _ roared  _ at me! You bared your teeth even on your last legs and would have fought me with your bare hands if you had to. You, Haruno Sakura, have more tenacity than a ninja twice your size and experience. And I cannot wait to see what you will become.”

Sakura’s breath was caught in her throat. She  _ had _ yelled at a giant tiger, hadn’t she? Had made her last stand in the face of death instead of giving up. Had been a good teammate, even at the end.

But this wasn’t the end; not yet. Sakura could feel the ache of yesterday’s bruises and cuts like a pounding drumbeat in her body, feel the ache and burn of a phantom limb, but she let it go.

She bared her teeth right back at the tiger, and delighted in Kikyō’s laughter and confidence.

\------------

In contrast to the rest of the Forest of Death, the riddle in the center of the forest was laughably easy, and Sakura grumbled under her breath as she lay the two scrolls out. Kikyō set Sasuke down gently, her huge fangs impossibly gentle in carrying him. Naruto, having been pulled down from the tiger’s back by Sakura, lay slumped on the ground by her side, snoring gently. She aligned the seals inside the two scrolls, but hesitated before activating them. Her summons seemed to understand her hesitation and carefully dragged Naruto and Sasuke some distance away, teeth gently grasping the fabric of their shirts. Sakura gave a small smile to the tiger before turning back to the seals and fully aligning them, sending a small pulse of chakra through the ink. 

The air around her grew thick with chakra and she scrambled backward before a cloud of smoke burst forth from the two scrolls. Sakura’s muscles tensed, but Kikyō caught her up with a massive paw and pulled her protectively into the tiger’s chest. As the smoke cleared, Sakura could see a figure standing on the spot the seals had been, and she almost collapsed with relief as she recognized Iruka-sensei. 

He seemed pleased for just a moment, and Sakura thought it was funny just how quickly his face froze at the sight before him. She realized a bit belatedly that they probably should have cleaned up a bit more before coming here. Sakura was covered in blood and grime from sprinting through the forest and being attacked then crawling around in the underbrush. The boys were sprawled out at her feet, also looking filthy and beat to hell and back. The cleanest person here was probably the massive tiger which was currently grasping Sakura with a massive clawed paw.

The last fact is probably what prompted the three kunai flying towards them, but Kikyō seemed unphased by the attack, simply swinging her massive head to knock into the blades and send all three spinning into the corner of the room. Sakura stared, a bit gobsmacked, before noticing Iruka-sensei drawing more kunai and holding up her hand placatingly. “Wait! Iruka-sensei! It’s ok!”

He paused, glancing between her and the 2 ton cat. “Sakura? What’s going on? Are you all alright?”

Sakura waited until Iruka began lowering his weapons before continuing. “We’re all alive, but we’re all pretty badly hurt. Sasuke has some kind of seal on his neck giving him a fever and Naruto got thrown headfirst into a tree and hasn’t woken up yet.”

Iruka paled a bit at that last fact, but seemed to keep hold of himself enough to not go sprinting towards a giant tiger. His gaze flickered up to meet Kikyō’s before settling back on Sakura. “And what about you Sakura? Are you ok?”

Sakura thought that was a stupid question, but then realized that Kikyō’s paw was still curled around her, hiding most of Sakura from view. She placed her remaining hand calmly on the tiger’s paw, pushing gently down until the summon acquiesced and released Sakura. Iruka didn’t seem to understand what he was looking at for a moment, still waiting for a verbal response. But Sakura could see the split second that her missing limb registered in his mind, because his face went blank and his kunai clattered to the ground, his grip having gone completely slack. His jaw parted in horror and he wheezed out a breath. “Sakura? What…?”

“We were attacked by a weird Grass nin with huge snake summons. They tried to kill us and they gave Sasuke that seal. They sent people to kill us after the fight.”

Sakura took in a deep trembling breath. She would not break, not after she had lived through this exam and that wretched forest. “The Grass nin commanded a Sound team to follow and kill us, because one of the men who was trying to kill us talked about how it was their leader who wanted us dead and that it was that same leader who attacked us before. I didn’t get a name for the ninja who originally attacked us, but they were at least Jounin level and I can give a physical description of the face they revealed.”

Iruka finally pulled himself out of his stupor and made a quick handsign. Sakura felt the tingle of foreign chakra, and realized that Iruka-sensei must have flared his chakra to get attention. She’d have to ask him how to do that later.

“And the tiger?”

Sakura met Iruka’s eyes, flinty and hard in a way that she had never seen on her teacher’s face before. “Kikyō’s my summon. She helped us.”

Iruka once again gaped at her, looking incredulously between the small Gennin and the massive tiger behind her. Sakura reached back and clutched at the tiger’s fur. “She saved me. You can’t send her away. I won’t let you.”

The tiger’s growl startled Iruka back to the present, and he nodded, visibly relaxing his posture but keeping the tension in his eyes. “Of course Sakura, your summon can stay with you. I understand that bonds between summoners and their summons can be pretty strong. You must have really impressed your Kikyō-san for them to be so protective of you.”

Sakura relaxed a bit at that, but Kikyō was still tense. A quick glance upwards and Sakura could see her ears flicking, eyes scanning the rafters above their heads. Sakura squinted, but didn’t see anything up there in the shadows. The tiger’s deep rumble reverberated through Sakura’s back as the summon spoke. “Call off the dogs. I am not the one who hurt these cubs.”

Iruka stared blankly at the tiger, impressively holding her gaze for a full minute before flicking his eyes down to Sakura. She made herself as comfortable in the summon’s embrace as possible, going so far as to pull Kikyō’s paw back up and snuggle into its fur. Iruka closed his eyes and hung his head, reaching a hand up to massage his neck. He mumbled something under his breath that Sakura didn’t catch. She’d have to ask Kikyō later.

Iruka flashed another handsign and several ninja appeared beside him, all wearing strange uniforms and armor, white animal masks covering their faces. A door off on the side of the room opened, and a few medic nin cautiously walked out, also led by a masked ninja. They carried stretchers and Sakura waved them over.

The med nins clearly did not want to approach, but the masked ninja at the front of the procession appeared to calmly and confidently walk towards them. Sakura wasn’t sure if he was just faking it to look cool, or if he had seen huge tigers before. Kikyō very generously didn’t growl or try and kill them when they started picking up Naruto and Sasuke. Watching the two boys being carefully maneuvered onto the stretchers, Sakura could feel the throbbing pain of her injuries pulling her down to the ground, and it was only the massive paw of the tiger still holding her up. Two of the med nins very cautiously approached with a third stretcher, very carefully setting it down by Sakura’s feet. 

Sakura looked down at it. For some reason, this more than anything seemed to feel like an ending. Like if she lay down and was taken away, she would be leaving the forest and her new strength and Kikyō behind. She continued to stare down at the pale blue fabric, oblivious to the nervous twitching of the medical ninja as they endured the tiger’s harsh glare. Finally, Sakura looked upwards, craning her neck to meet the eyes of her summons. “You’re gonna stay with us, right? You’re gonna watch over me and my team while we’re asleep?”

The tiger’s expression softened, and she pressed a large wet nose to Sakura’s scalp, giving the hair there a few rough licks. “I will watch over you and the other cubs with my life.”

Sakura took a few wobbly steps forward, holding onto the tiger’s paw with her good arm before collapsing to her knees on the stretcher. Sakura let the waves of pain that had been ebbing at the back of her mind rush in. The medical ninja maneuvered her more carefully onto the stretcher, talking rapidly, but softly, over her head as they began to walk her further into the tower. Sakura’s muscles seized and she gasped in pain, but the nearby rumble of Kikyō’s deep voice soothed her racing mind and she once again succumbed to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Kakashi enter, stage right

Sakura hadn't realized that waking up from blacking out was going to suck so much. Had she known this, she could have better prepared herself for the headache-inducing lights, the after effects of medical grade painkillers, the spinning sense of nausea. As it was, the first time she woke up and could remember waking up, she sat up, squinted through the blinding sunlight at her sensei who sat at her bedside, and promptly threw up into Hatake Kakashi's lap.

The second time Sakura woke up, she was a bit more cognizant, though pleasantly hazy in a way she only ever felt after finishing a really good romance novel. The window shutters were tightly closed and her sensei still sat at her bedside, though he looked decidedly wary as she blinked up at him. Like someone who isn't sure if a dog is going to bite or not. He was also sitting noticably further away than last time he was here. Sakura could hear the rumbling base of Kikyō's huffed breath, and could make out her form sprawled on the tile floor in front of her cot, her massive size putting the tiger almost at eye level even while lying down. From her expression and squinted eyes, Sakura could probably guess that Kikyō was laughing at something.

Sakura's first words came out as a wheezing croak, and her sensei seemed to almost leap out of the chair to hold a glass of water out to her. She stared at the glass for a bit. He was trying to hand it to her left arm. She thought this was pretty funny, but her sensei just looked a bit distressed. The tiger at her feet huffed out another laugh.

Kakashi-sensei helped her sit up to drink the water. Sakura could tell that something was a bit off about her thinking process. Everything seemed pretty funny right now, which was quite a stark contrast to her previous pain and panic. Thoughts floated in and out of her mind with abandon, and she found her train of thought drifting around as she took small sips of room-temperature liquid.

Once Sakura had drained the small cup and Kakashi-sensei had settled himself back down, the girl did her best to look around and take stock of the room. The first and most important thing she noticed was that there were 2 beds set up near hers. The farthest one was empty, with only a few rumpled sheets to betray a previous patient. The closest one to her had Sasuke, who seemed to be sleeping much better. His face no longer shone with sweat and his breathing was deep and even. Sakura took a moment to look over him, taking comfort in counting his steady breaths.

The second thing she noticed was the blatant guards in the room, two on either end. The one further away was one of the masked ones, and they seemed to be as still as a statue. The closer one was a rather non-descript man in one of those puffy green ninja vests, a bandana around his head and a senbon poking out from the corner of his mouth. He wasn't a statue, because he gave Sakura a slight nod before going back to staring at the wall. There might have been more guards, but they were probably hiding like the ones in the tower rafters.

Sakura wasn't sure if her sensei could count as the third thing she noticed, because she had already seen him. Kikyō didn't count because she had told Sakura she would be there and she was.  _ It would make a pretty strange list to only have 2 things. Lists usually have at least 3. _

"Sensei, give me a thing."

Kakashi blinked at her. "Ah. What kind of thing? Is there something you need?"

Kikyō rested her head gently at the foot of the cot, seemingly content to watch.

"I need a third thing. This room has nothing in it."

Kakashi-sensei did not seem to understand, even with Sakura's further explanation. "Ah, like decoration? You want things to decorate the room?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes at her obstinate sensei. "No. Just a thing. Something to see."

Kakashi did not look like he was understanding. "So, decoration. Do you have something from your home I could get you? A picture or a blanket?"

Sakura snapped her teeth at him. He reeled backwards like he had been struck. Her summon's rumbling sent vibrations through the rickety cot and Sakura could see the ninja man in the corner turn his head away, shoulders shaking a bit. Sakura let out a frustrated sigh and sank back into the pillows that propped her up. "I guess you'll just have to do for now, sensei."

The guards' shaking had increased, accompanied now by a strange coughing noise. Kikyō lifted her head off the cot so her laughter wouldn't jar Sakura's injuries as much. Sakura thought that was awfully nice of her.

Kakashi wilted a bit in his seat, before straightening back up, settling into something a bit more professional.

"So, Sakura. We've heard the events of the forest from Naruto's and your... summon's perspective. But there was a significant gap of time between Naruto being knocked out and you meeting the summon. Can you try and tell me exactly what happened?"

Sakura took a moment to piece her thoughts together. The events seemed almost distorted and hazy, viewed as they were through a lens of intense fear. She did her best to recount the end of the fight, including the strange way the Grass nin's face had peeled away and the switching hitiate symbol. The descriptions of the ninja's elongating limbs still creeped her out, so she tried to rush through those bits as fast as possible. Once she had finished with her description of the fight, Sakura noticed that both guards were now slightly turned in her direction, clearly noting the events and particular ninja she described.

"And how about you? What did you do in the fight?"

Sakura gazed blankly at her sensei. She had enough self awareness at the moment to know that without whatever drugs were keeping her lax, she would have felt deep curls of shame and embarrassment. Right now though, Sakura just felt kind of empty. "I did nothing, sensei. I would have only gotten in the way if I had fought. I made sure to catch Naruto before he fell, though."

Her sensei's face was just as inscrutable as ever. "Ah. Ok then, what happened between the fight and meeting the summons?"

Sakura didn't have quite as much hesitation here. Each minute of that chase had been imbedded into her memory. "The Sound team found me as I was trying to get my bearings. They made a bunch of noise, scaring me into packing up and running. I couldn't carry both of my teammates by myself so I had to tie Sasuke to my back with wire. They chased me for a long time. At least 2 hours but maybe more. They - they weren't out to kill me right away. They wanted to hurt me first. Make me run myself into the ground. I tried to run up a tree but they kept kicking me down, and I didn't want to drop Naruto from too far up so I just ran on the ground."

Sakura took a moment to breathe. To center herself. "I didn't know any jutsu to fight them with. I couldn't use the academy 3 with both Naruto and Sasuke on me. I couldn't fight them with my weapons because they would just aim for Naruto and Sasuke. I couldn't do anything."

Sakura held Kakashi-sensei's gaze. "I was too weak to do anything. They finally cornered me and were going to kill us when one of the Sound nin got caught by something, some animal. They left to help him so I kept running."

Sakura felt pleasantly numb in her haze. She shouldn't have been so relaxed in her retelling; this had been so terrifying. "I kept running until I saw something. And then I found Kikyō. She was eating someone, not sure who. And I just set my teammates down and pulled out a knife. Kikyō's fur is thick like armor, so the kunai wouldn't have even worked. And then she talked to me, said some rude stuff about me being weak. I yelled at her a bunch and she seemed a little impressed."

Kikyō rumbled out an affirmative, huffing a bit.

"And then she talked to me. Told me about stuff that the tigers value. About how she didn't care about how weak I was, because I was so determined to survive."

Sakura looked down, not wanting to meet her sensei's intense gaze. It felt odd, to be telling him this. Telling him about the words that passed between them. The strange weight of ancient chakra had felt sacred and secret, felt untouchable in that moment.

"Kikyō promised to help me. To give me her strength and intelligence. She promised to train me."

Sakura looked back up, seeing the slow creep of something dark flash across her sensei's face. He was fighting it though, trying to hear out his student to the end of the story.

"So I gave Kikyō my arm."

Kakashi-sensei stared at her, his single visible eye wide with disbelief and badly concealed anger. The corner guard whipped his head around, staring in open-mouthed shock. Sakura didn't feel much of anything right now, but she could recognize the palpable tension in the air, feel the temperature drop as Kakashi raked his gaze around to meet Kikyō's blank stare. She seemed indifferent to his mounting fury, looking down her muzzle at him with a critical eye. Sakura had never seen so much emotion on her sensei's face before. His mask bunched where his lips were curled in a snarl and she heard one of his knuckles pop from how hard he was clenching his fists. She could smell ozone.

Sakura could recognize the feeling creeping in through her skin and into her lungs. Killing Intent. It rose like a vicious wave off of her sensei's form, taking her breath away with how close to it she was. It broke through the haze of the narcotics in her system, bringing her crashing back down to reality. The guard in the corner of the room tensed, and seemed like he was trying to decide between intervening and staying in his post. The other guard didn't move an inch, a silent shadow content to watch the events unfolding. Kikyō continued to look on, unphased by the rising chakra in the air. Her only movement was a slow flick of the ears and a quick glance in Sakura's direction. 

Sakura couldn't breathe. The air around her was turning thick like water and she couldn't breathe. She had never felt such malice from her teacher before, and she did her best to cower away while strapped to the confines of the machines by her bed. She tried to reach for Sasuke in the other bed, to keep him away from the Grass nin, make sure he was safe. Kakashi-sensei didn't notice her struggling, his gaze locked on the tiger summons. But Kikyō saw.

The tiger sent a wave of chakra outward, but it didn't suffocate like Kakashi's did. It seemed to envelop her like a warm breeze, pressing away the roiling chakra just next to her. Sakura gasped for air, trembling for a moment against the sheets before throwing herself forward, away from the suffocating feeling of KI.

Sakura was occupied solely with getting to her summon's embrace, and so did not see the violent flinch of her sensei as he reeled backwards, the heavy chakra abruptly vanishing from the room. Sakura tore out the needles in her arm and did her best to scramble forwards and off the cot, curling into the warm fur of the tiger and bursting into panicked tears. Kikyō rumbled reassuringly, murmuring words too low to hear, but whose vibrations Sakura could feel. 

Without the pleasant haze of drugs, Sakura could feel anxiety starting to set in. She was laying on the floor with her summons in the middle of the room. An attack could come from any angle. Sakura began to furiously tug at the tiger's limbs, and was relieved when the large cat moved forward, nosing the cot and medical equipment aside to make room on the back wall. Sakura quickly assessed Sasuke's condition. He didn't seem to be in any pain or distress, and was only hooked up to a heart monitor. She started heaving him out of the bed, ignoring the hesitant words of her sensei from somewhere behind her. Kikyō stepped forward and gently picked up Sasuke by the front of the shirt -  _ not his shirt, something too plain and uniform. Someone had moved him, touched him, while Sakura was asleep -  _ and Sakura wrapped her good arm around his legs and quickly helped to place him down on the ground by the wall. 

Sakura could distantly hear hushed voices from somewhere in the room, but disregarded them in favor of setting up the best position. She eventually settled herself against the wall, Sasuke's upper chest cradled in her lap with her legs pulled up to try and curl herself around him. She really wanted to lean up against Kikyō, but she sacrificed that brief comfort for her summon's solid bulk in front of her. A wall between Sakura's team and whatever might be coming for them. Like this, Kikyō would have no trouble springing forward to defend them, and Sakura felt the knot inside her chest ease up a bit at the safety this position provided. Her breathing calmed from the heaving gasps she had been taking, and Sakura pressed her face into Sasuke's shoulder, counting her heartbeats as they slowed down to a more normal level. 

She knew that what just happened was a normal reaction to the events she had witnessed and the trauma she had faced. But knowing that her actions were rational didn't stop her shame and embarrassment from returning full-force. She ground her teeth down to stop herself from crying out again, and furiously scrubbed at her puffy eyes. She was a kunoichi, damn it. She wasn't going to give in and cry every time someone released a bit of Killing Intent.

She could hear a few shuffles from the direction of the corner, but the tiger's towering form kept most of the room from view. She heard a few deliberate steps forward towards her summons, and a low voice called out. "Hey, Sakura right? My name's Genma. I was the guard over by the window."

Sakura sniffed a few times, taking some deep breaths to help settle her nerves. The bandana man hadn't seemed too bad, and he had to be really brave if we was willing to walk towards Kikyō, especially since Sakura could now register the reverberating growl of the massive summons, the deep timbre rattling the medical equipment nearby and sending a calming vibration through the floor. Sakura probably shouldn't find that calming.

"I'm just coming over to see if there's anything I can get you while you're over there. Do you want some more water, or maybe a weapon to hold?"

Sakura kind of wanted to laugh at the strange disparity in options, before realizing that her hand was grasping uncomfortably tight in Sasuke's shirt and that she actually did want something she could defend with. "Um, can I have a kunai please?"

Her voice wavered and broke a bit, but her brief embarrassment was overwhelmed with relief as she heard the slide of metal across the tile floor and scrambled for the kunai that Kikyō passed her. With the blade in hand, Sakura felt a bit better about taking stock of herself and Sasuke. Her teammate seemed relatively undisturbed from where he rested against her chest, no worse for the wear after having been hauled around abruptly. His unconsciousness worried her, but she figured that it was some form of drug similar to what she had been on. She checked his visible bandages for signs of opened wounds, but didn't see any red spots. The strange seal on his neck was surrounded now by a few more seals that seemed to be keeping his feverish state at bay. She didn't really care too much about taking stock of her own injuries, the drugs still in her system dulling the pain to a more manageable level than before.

"Do you want me to have your sensei leave the room?"

Sakura froze at the question, running it through her mind analytically. Kakashi-sensei had never intentionally done anything to hurt her or her team, but she could still feel the faint trembling in her limbs from the effects of his rage. What if he got mad at Kikyō again? She'd be a stuttering, blubbering mess. She wouldn't be prepared for any threats that came through. But. Sakura had done her research. Her sensei was a really strong shinobi, one of the most powerful in the village. He'd probably be able to fight off any other ninja before they even got within range of Kikyō's claws.

"He can stay."

She heard a shaky huff of breath from further across the room and the ninja, Genma, hummed in acknowledgement. "Ok, is there anything else I can do to make you feel more safe?"

Sakura didn't have to think too hard for this one. "Can you go get Naruto? I don't know where he is."

"Sure thing, I'll go fetch him now."

There was a rustling of wind and Genma was gone, hopefully off to get Naruto and not to write a report to the closest psychiatrist. Sakura took a few more breaths, adjusting Sasuke a bit where he rested against her. The room was quiet, Kikyō's growling having tapered off into occasional rumbles, her tail flicking itself backward to drape over Sakura's shoulders. It was surprisingly heavy, like a rolled up blanket made of the softest yarn.

A few more moments of silence went by until it was broken by Kikyō's deep voice, rolling across the tile and filling the space. "I don't think I need to tell you exactly how badly you've fucked yourself over."

Sakura stared a bit at the summon's flank. She didn't think that Kikyō needed swear words to feel scary, but hearing the venom in her voice as she spat them out seemed to add an edge of viciousness to her otherwise even tone. Sakura kind of wished that she could command a room as well as the tiger could. Then she'd never have to worry about being scared again.

Kakashi-sensei shuffled a bit more in the corner of the room, but didn't comment on the tiger's words. Sakura waited for a response, but was disappointed and a bit hurt by the silence. She didn't really want to stay scared and mad at Kakashi-sensei, but he didn't seem to want to talk to them or even apologize. Maybe he was still too scared of Kikyō to apologize to Sakura right now. This was quite the stressful situation, Sakura noted a bit clinically. 

The silence stretched on for a few minutes, until the sound of the door opening had Sakura's heart rate picking up. She clutched her kunai tighter as she heard the soft words of Genma directing someone towards them. She didn't breathe as the footsteps walked right up to Kikyō, the summon not even twitching from its sprawl. Then Naruto's head of blindingly bright hair poked over the top of the tigers' leg and his absolutely horrendous stage whisper broke her frozen stupor. "Hey Sakura! Your tiger is really cool! She called me 'spirited', whatever that means."

Sakura released the breath she was holding with a shaky laugh, and Naruto took that as permission to scramble over Kikyō's foreleg and settle himself comfortably into her left side, as though they were on a couch in the library and not huddled on a hospital room floor behind a massive tiger. 

Naruto leaned in as close as he could without pressing down on her arm stump. His voice was so quiet that Sakura almost didn't think it came from her boisterous teammate. "Are you ok Sakura? That ninja with the needle in his mouth kinda explained what happened. You want me to go and beat up Kakashi-sensei?"

Sakura's laugh was a bit watery, her eyes filling up with tears again despite her best attempts to stave them off. "No, I'm ok Naruto."

He looked at her for a few moments before nodding. "Ok. Offer still stands if you change your mind."

She took a few more breaths, but couldn't seem to stop her tears from falling down her face. Naruto gently, if clumsily, wiped them off her face. "Do you want me to talk? I can tell you about what happened when I woke up."

Sakura nodded and her teammate quietly began to speak, filling their small space with a gentle chatter that washed away the last bit of panic still clinging to her lungs. Naruto prattled on about nothing in particular, and didn't seem to mind that Sakura wasn't really taking the words in. This was the safest and most relaxed Sakura had felt in probably days. She relished in the feeling of having all her people so close, and felt a small pang of grief that Kakashi-sensei couldn't be over here too. But Kikyō was mad at him and he was mad at Kikyō so Sakura would just have to make do with her small family.

Sakura wasn't sure how much time passed like that, though it couldn't have been more than an hour. Eventually Naruto started to squirm around a bit, not used to sitting still for so long, and Sakura had to thump his shoulder gently with her stump to get him to settle down again. He hadn't seemed bothered by it: her missing arm. He hadn't said anything out loud about it, and was extra careful about pressing gently into her side. Sakura couldn't get a good grasp on what he thought about it, which both bugged and impressed her. She didn't know that Naruto could be so crafty about feelings.

She interrupted his latest string of nonsense with a nudge. "Naruto, are you mad at me?"

He seemed a bit shocked by the question. "Why would I be mad?"

"Because I was weak. Because I gave my arm to Kikyō."

Naruto thought over her words carefully, glancing up to the great tiger that lay before them. Kikyō, for her part, didn't respond, staying vigilant to the room at large and giving the two Gennin a bit of space. Naruto pursed his lips. "Why did you give her your arm?"

"Because we were going to die. Because she wanted to help me, but I had to give her something for her to be my summons."

"There was nothing else you could have given her?"

Sakura shook her head gently. "She told me about all the stuff that the tigers value, and I didn't have anything else to give her. There was nothing else I could do to protect you guys."

Naruto mulled over these words for a bit, staring intensely, but thoughtfully, at the tiger's back. After a moment, he spoke. "You gave up something really important to protect us."

Sakura didn't respond, but curled up a bit further into Naruto's side. He didn't have his jacket, and Sakura thought he looked kind of odd without all the bright orange. Like he was too serious.

"You're really brave, Sakura. Way braver than me or Sasuke."

Sakura stared at him, a bit dumbfounded. "No I'm not. I couldn't fight off those Sound ninja and I cried so much after my arm got taken."

"But you still did it. You still gave up something real important and you kept me and the bastard alive even though you don't like me very much and Sasuke is really mean to you. I think that's pretty brave of you. To do all that for someone who's really mean and someone you hate."

She looked at Naruto, really looked. He seemed to try and play off his words as nonchalant, but Sakura could see that he was avoiding her eyes and that his hands were clenched tightly in the fabric of his shorts. She let out a shaky breath and did her best to press further into him, unable as she was to give him a hug. "I don't hate you, Naruto. You annoy me sometimes, sure, but you're really brave too. You're so much stronger than me and you're always smiling and you always get back up when you get pushed down. I was so scared the other day because I was worried I wouldn't ever get to tell you that. You wouldn't wake up and you were so still-"

Sakura swallowed around the lump in her throat. "I was worried I wouldn't get the chance to tell you what a good teammate you are."

Naruto was crying now, big fat tears that ran down his face. But he was grinning wider than she had ever seen before. "I think you're a really good teammate too. And the bastard would agree if he was awake right now."

Sakura felt a rush of affection and pride. These were her two boys. Her teammates. Her litter mates. She gave a watery laugh and buried her face into his shoulder. They were both crying like idiots on the floor, but Sakura couldn't have cared less at that moment. 

"Also, you look really badass now. Like, you could probably scare the shit out of Shikamaru right now by just looking at him."

Sakura head-butted his shoulder, but laughed anyway. She felt so much lighter now, like a great weight had been lifted off her chest and she could finally breathe. "Do you think I could scare Kiba, too?"

Naruto scoffed. "Obviously. Kiba is terrified of cats after Tora got him really good that one time, and your tiger is like the biggest cat ever!"

Kikyō rumbled out a laugh, startling Naruto. "I have heard myself described in many ways, but never before have I been graced with the title 'biggest cat ever'."

The tiger craned her head around to the two Gennin, giving both a few rough swipes with her tongue, much to their sputtering protests. Sakura pretended to scrape her mouth off and Naruto giggled at how their hair was now swept up into strange spikes. Kikyō seemed quite pleased with the two of them, and twitched her tail to settle over her and Naruto. 

Sakura pulled Sasuke into a more comfortable position, settling his head down in her lap and untangling his arms from her shirt front. He looked peaceful like this. This illusion of safety in such an odd place made Sakura feel like she was living in some strange dream. Naruto let out a jaw-cracking yawn next to her, shoving his head and bony elbows around until he was snuffling sleepily into her shoulder. Despite the warmth she felt and the lingering ache that threatened to drag her back into sleep, Sakura remained vigilant. She would stay awake and guard her teammates.

\----------

At some point a few hours later, a med nin appeared to readminister her pain meds and check to see if she had torn open the scab on her arm. Kikyō stood up to sniff at the newcomer - _and probably intimidate them_ _into behaving_ \- and Sakura got her first glimpse of the room since she had panicked earlier. 

It was mostly the same as she remembered, hospital rooms tend to be pretty monotone in nature. But Sakura could now see the other occupants of the room. The bandana ninja was still here, a bit closer to her current position than before. There were now two masked guards, one of whom had just entered with the med nin. Kakashi-sensei was not there anymore.

Sakura felt a sting of betrayal and anxiety coil in her gut. She had said he could stay so that he would help protect team 7, and to keep him away from the Grass nin who had escaped. If he wasn't here, he could be in danger. Sakura spoke up quietly. "Genma-san, where did sensei go?"

He smiled at her, but it didn't feel very reassuring. "He's currently in a meeting with the Hokage and the other Jounin instructors. They're deciding on whether or not to continue with the exams."

Sakura frowned. She didn't go through all that trouble just to end the exam here. Kikyō moved from where she was quietly threatening the med nin and swung her head around to Genma, who was doing a very good job of not looking terrified. "What do you mean by that? Will the cub's exam be halted?"

"I don't know. The ninja who attacked team 7 was confirmed to be Orochimaru of the Sannin, and if he decides to stick around it could be a threat to village security. It's already a threat, since we haven't figured out yet how he managed to slip in unnoticed past the sensors."

The tiger bared her fangs, eyes flashing in the florescent lights of the hospital room. "The snake summoner? He was the one that attacked my cubs?"

Genma flinched at her intensity, and Sakura noted curiously that the room seemed to increase slightly in temperature. "Yes, the Snake Sannin. We've got a few teams trying to hunt him down at the moment -"

"You will not find him now, you were too slow. Snakes strike quickly and then disappear underground. He has no doubt already hidden himself well."

Kikyō made a visible effort to calm herself and the room returned back to its normal temperature. Sakura wondered if it was some sort of jutsu used to intimidate people. It seemed to work really well, even on Genma.

"Tell that dog sensei of hers to come back to the room immediately after his meeting. I have a few words to impart onto him and his Hokage."

Genma nodded, and vanished in a puff of wind and leaves. He didn't seem to mind taking orders from a huge tiger, and Sakura's respect for him grew. Naruto gently tapped her on the ribs, having woken up at some point in the past few minutes. "Do you think they're really gonna cancel the exams? There's still a bunch of teams out in the forest, and you definitely gotta be promoted."

Sakura just hummed, unsure how to respond, but a bit curious about her situation now that she was no longer panicking. "How long have we been here?"

"Just a day since you brought us here. I woke up a couple hours after we got to the tower, but you slept the rest of the day and night. Sasuke hasn't woken up yet, but they only just finished all his seals and stuff this morning."

"Is he ok?"

"Probably. Kaka-sensei said that he was 'stable' now, but wouldn't tell me about what that seal on him was supposed to do. All I know is that this Orochu-guy put it on him and he got sick, so it's probably some kind of poison."

Sakura frowned. Poison could be pretty bad, but if his condition was stable that meant at least he wasn't getting worse, but he probably wasn't getting better either. 

Kikyō padded back over to the little huddle, followed closely by a petrified-looking med nin. They administered some more painkillers and reapplied Sakura's bandage, all under the watchful glare of the tiger. Naruto had to scoot over to let them rewrap her stump, but he quickly wiggled back into place once the green glow of medical chakra faded and the attendant shakily stood back up. "Your wound is healing fine, just try not to exert yourself too much, and be careful about stretching your arm too far, or you'll rip off the scab."

Sakura nodded and watched with no small amount of amusement as Kikyō bodily shoved the med nin away with her head, prompting a startled shriek. Naruto snorted.

The next half hour was mostly filled with more waiting and quiet conversation. Genma came back at some point and Kikyō even deigned to let him come close enough to hand Sakura and Naruto a few blankets. Sakura thought that the cots would probably be more comfortable than the floor, but she didn't think they could all fit on one. Naruto kept up an endless stream of chatter, bouncing from one topic to the next with his usual reckless abandon. She found out that sometimes Iruka-sensei would take Naruto lunches, and that Naruto thought Iruka's curry was the second best food after ramen. He told her all about this really cool spot he found off in the woods, where there was a pond that filled with tadpoles and tiny peeper frogs every spring. He told her about the people of the red light district where he lived, and how his downstairs neighbor didn't have a leg, and how the nice lady who sat on the nearby street corner would sometimes share her food with him.

Sakura in turn told him about a little dessert shop owned by one of her neighbors, and how they served anmitsu and the best roasted nuts in the winter. About how she had found a loose panel of wood in the back of the library and liked to wedge herself down behind it to read books. She told him about how she had learned to cook from books and written slips of paper, because her parents were always away on business trips and how one time she had to walk herself to the hospital with a broken wrist.

At some point, they ran out of words to say but neither of them seemed to mind, content to lean against each other and rest their legs against Kikyō's broad side, feeling the tiger's lungs expand and contract with each breath.

Sakura thought that she was probably pretty happy right now.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Hokage gets told off and a sleepover is had

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit y'all!! Over 50 comments and bookmarks??? Over 200 kudos??? So many hits??? This is insane, and I love you all so much. I'm so glad you guys like this weird little idea of mine

Sakura had been about to nod off when the door opened, kick-starting her into wakefulness. She adjusted her grip on her kunai and Naruto leaned against her in support. Kikyō rumbled out a warning growl when the footsteps got too close for her liking, and there was a brief pause. A few silent guards moved into Sakura's line of sight as they covered all corners and major exits of the room. The tiger's fur bristled in preparation, and the great beast in front of her began emitting heat like a furnace. The air was tense and silent.

"So, you must be the tiger summons I was told about: Kikyō. It must have been quite-"

"I did not give you permission to use my name."

The tiger's voice dripped with malice and fury and Sakura saw some of the guards visibly tense. The air grew a bit warmer. Sakura was starting to sweat. There was a harsh clack as Kikyō snapped her teeth. "Only my summoner and her litter mates may use my name. You disgrace the tigers by speaking out of turn, human."

Sakura was both frightened and really impressed. She had never heard anybody speak like that to the Hokage; she had never heard anyone even talk badly about him. 

"...Very well then. My apologies. You wished to speak with me?"

The tiger took a moment, swinging her head around slowly to pinpoint all of the guards. She caught Sakura's anxious gaze and huffed quietly. When she turned back to face the Hokage, the temperature in the room decreased slightly. "You will not continue with these exams."

_That was blunt_. Sakura kind of wished now that she had talked with Kikyō about what she was going to say. The tiger might need some pointers on how to make more convincing arguments. There was a shuffling noise, and when the Hokage next spoke, there was the slightest edge of steel in his tone. "I'm afraid that this decision does not rest at your feet. I must deliberate based on the safety of all the combatants and of the village at large. Since you are not a member of this village, I have no obligation to hear your requests. Is that all you wish to speak with me about?"

Kikyō stared in silence for a moment, before a deep rumbling began to travel through the floor and walls, making the machinery in the room clatter and the air thicken. The ninja that Sakura could see all drew weapons, preparing to engage. Sakura's heart rate nearly doubled and she began to shake, panic and fear making her breath stutter. The sound grew louder until Kikyō opened her maw, letting out a heavy, guttural laugh that caused a few ninja to flinch backwards. Sakura thought that she saw a few embers flutter around Kikyō's head before winking out.

"Clearly the cub from your village that I have under my protection doesn't count. Very well. I shall hold your attention with something a bit more personal."

Kikyō slowly sat up, rising upwards almost 6 feet before settling more firmly onto her haunches. Sakura could see most of the room now, and she got her very first close-up view of the Hokage. He looked so old and so tired. His wrinkles seemed almost carved onto his face, though his eyes were piercing in their intensity. Kakashi-sensei also stood a bit behind him, along with a few of the other sensei. They all seemed more preoccupied with the tiger, but Sakura saw Kakashi's eye flicker to her for a split second before focusing back on Kikyō.

The tiger leaned forward, a huge fanged grin curving viciously around her muzzle. "You are also a summoner. Tell me, little human, how attached are you to your summoning contract?"

The room seemed to freeze, and the Hokage's statue-esque facade cracked for a split second. Sakura could almost swear that it was trepidation that she saw. "You're threatening me?"

"Your life is not on the line by any of my choices, though I cannot say the same for the people in this forest. You are jepordizing your beloved village with your inane decisions. You have already made up your mind to continue with these examinations, despite the danger."

"It is a calculated risk in order to promote village strength and lure out Orochimaru."

Kikyō sneered. "Lure him into an arena full of children? How noble of you to make that sacrifice for them."

"We have ANBU on full alert. They will interfere at the slightest hint of the Sannin."

"Ah yes, your elite ninja. Tell me, when you sent these ANBU after the snake, how many engaged in combat with him and came back alive?"

The silence was more telling than any reply he could have offered. Kikyō let the room speak for itself, before pressing onward in her speech. "You are also blatantly assuming that he works alone, when it was relayed that the snake ordered an entire Sound team to attack my cub. Even if this Sound village wasn't suspect, Orochimaru is still a summoner. He has a veritable army of serpents at his disposal. Tell me, how well prepared are you for your village to be overrun with snakes?"

The Hokage once again remained silent, though his gaze on the tiger was more calculating than before. Sakura saw some of the Jounin sensei behind him exchange glances, though Kakashi-sensei remained fixed on Kikyō.

The Hokage finally spoke up. "I fail to see how my summoning contract with the monkeys plays into this."

Kikyō's laugh was unkind. "You will call off these exams or I will gather my siblings and hunt down your personal summons. You seem to care not for the lives of your villagers, so what are a few more lives to add to your growing dead?"

The air of the room was oppressive in its intensity. Though the ninja on guard remained engaged, Sakura could see they were unsure how to proceed. Sakura for her part was a bit conflicted and definitely still panicked. She held tightly to her kunai, though she wasn't sure she'd be able to make a difference if all of these ninja attacked Kikyō at once. _Would they attack her too, since Sakura was her summoner?_ Sakura suddenly felt that she was too far away from the tiger, too far to help if the guards attacked. She scrambled upwards, foisting Sasuke's limp form off to Naruto, who didn't protest like she expected but instead curled protectively around the unconscious boy. Sakura took a few shaky steps forward, until she was standing right next to her summon. The tiger slightly leaned into her shoulder, bolstering Sakura's confidence. She didn't look to the Hokage, but instead angled her body outward, settling into a defensive stance with her lone kunai and locking her gaze onto one of the guards in the corner. She saw his eyes widen and he loosened his grip on the sword he had pulled out.

The air was still tense, but in a different way this time. Sakura couldn't quite pinpoint how it had changed, too busy flicking her eyes to each of the ninja on her side of the room, assessing the weapons and stances of each one. The Hokage spoke up, though Sakura didn't let herself be distracted from her task. "Sakura-chan, perhaps you ought to go and sit back down. You shouldn't be exerting yourself so much after a large injury."

Sakura grit her teeth. "I don't need to sit down, Hokage-sama. I need to protect Kikyō."

One of the ninja she was facing, a man with wild hair and a bandage across his face, shifted uncomfortably under her glare. Maybe Sakura was getting better at this whole intimidation thing.

"Your summon is not going to come to any harm here, please try and relax."

"There's too many ninja for her to fight by herself, and I'm not gonna let you guys hurt her. She's supposed to teach me how to be strong."

The Hokage took a moment to respond. "I can assure you, I chose your sensei very specifically to cultivate your team's talents. If it's strength you desire, Kakashi-san will be - and has been - an excellent teacher for you."

Sakura snarled and whipped around, starling the older man. Sakura's temper had always had the nasty habit of getting the better of her. The girl's fierce noise was echoed by Kikyō's deep growl, and Sakura did her best to press into the tiger's soft fur. "Kakashi-sensei never taught me anything; he thought I was too weak and girly. My teammates thought I was weak, too. But Kikyō told me that I was strong in a different way. Told me that she saw how hard I was trying. Told me that she would give up her life to protect me and my team, and fought off the Sound nin trying to kill us. So even if you try and make your ninja hurt her, I'll fight for her too! Because I'm gonna be the fiercest ninja in this village!"

Kikyō's chakra pulsed at her back, and Sakura could feel that same _warmwind-hearthfire_ feeling from before, the tiger's chakra reaching out to envelop her in its embrace. The room around them grew warm, and Sakura saw the way the guards tensed in preparation for a fight. Bright spots of light floated around her like fireflies, embers generating and snuffing out of existence in the warm air. Kikyō slowly began moving backwards, Sakura following her step-for-step until they were blocking Naruto and Sasuke from view. Kikyō stared forward, eyes never leaving the Hokage's. Kakashi-sensei wasn't looking at them anymore. Sakura's hand shook, but she held her ground.

Kikyō's growl had an air of finality to it. "Leave this room now. I will not have you threatening my cubs any longer."

The Hokage stared down the tiger, lips pursing in displeasure before flicking his gaze over to Sakura. She did her best not to meet his eyes. She felt like this moment was too fragile, like delicate, spun glass. One wrong movement and they would have to fight. One of the ninja in the corner, a woman with purple hair, held Sakura's stare with a white-knuckled grip on her kunai, her eyes filled with some strange emotion. The air in the room was stifling. 

With a small sigh, the Hokage turned and began to leave. Sakura could almost swear she saw some great weight pulling down on his shoulders, saw how he was dragging around much more than he could carry. Then he was gone, most of the guards leaving with him, but several of the Jounin sensei staying behind. 

Kakashi-sensei was looking at them again, but his face was unreadable. One of the other sensei, a strange man in a green jumpsuit, placed a hand on Kakashi's shoulder and gave a comforting squeeze. Sakura's heart clenched, and she desperately wished for her sensei to be over here with her, instead of on the other side of the room. Kikyō lowered her head and Sakura met her green eyes. Sakura looked at the tiger, trying to communicate her tumultuous feelings. The tiger's expression didn't change visibly, but she released a huff of air, which ruffled Sakura's bangs, and Kikyō turned back to check in on Naruto.

Sakura began to make her way across the room, wobbling every few steps, but assured in her path. She was tired. So tired. She had been thrown into panic again and again today, and all she wanted was peace and quiet and all her precious people in one place. Sakura wasn't sure when Kakashi-sensei made it onto that short list, but she was too exhausted to contemplate. She just wanted her team and her teacher and her summons and sleep and maybe some anmitsu. She didn't feel like fighting today anymore. Her kunai hit the ground with a clatter.

Kakashi's eye widened as she made her way over to him, and he seemed to freeze in place, as though one stray movement would send her running. That was pretty silly of him. Even when she was deep in her panic, she knew he would never really hurt her. She stopped right in front of him, swaying a bit to keep from listing to the right too much. Sakura could see that he was nervous; though his body remained as still as a statue his fingers kept twitching. _Better not let him run off again_.

Though she couldn't see it visibly, she felt him jump a bit when she grabbed his hand with her one good one. Sakura gave Kakashi one last look before turning back to the far wall, tugging him along to lead him back to the rest of the team. It almost seemed for a second that he would dig his heels in and stay, but after a particularly insistent tug that almost sent Sakura tumbling, he relented, walking almost hesitantly behind her as she pulled him forward. Kikyō turned her gaze to them and sensei froze once more, only to be broken out of his stupor by Sakura giving him a vicious shin kick and using his stumbling step backwards to haul him forwards again. The tiger said nothing, just watched the procession with clear amusement, ears flicking. She didn't even growl, which was awfully generous of her.

Naruto beamed up at them from where he was sprawled out on the floor, having wrapped Kikyō's tail around his shoulders like a shawl. Sasuke was curled a bit in sleep, his head pillowed on Naruto's thigh. Sakura had to do a lot of poking and prodding and a bit more kicking to position Kakashi against the wall how she liked, and Naruto wasted no time in throwing himself down on his lap and wiggling around to get comfortable, which Sakura knew from experience involved more elbows than it should have. Kakashi weathered it all, though he looked a bit shell-shocked. Naruto eventually settled himself down, Sasuke now laying partially sprawled over his teammate's stomach. Sakura sat down, shoving some more to get her sensei's arm at a good angle to act as a pillow before leaning against his side. Kakashi-sensei was a bit too tense to really make a good pillow, but she thought it was kind of sweet that he was trying to breathe as shallowly as possible so as not to disturb them.

Kikyō rumbled in approval, and flopped herself over in front of the little group, stretching her head out so that Sakura's bare feet could wedge themselves in the ruff of her neck fur. The girl giggled a bit at the soft feeling, before settling in more comfortably. Sakura wasn't sure what expression Kakashi was making, but a few of the Jounin sensei on the other side of the room snickered, and the man in the jumpsuit gave him a beaming smile and a thumbs up, tears streaming down his face. _Weird_. They left as silently as they came, with the spandex man turning the lights off on his way out. 

With the florescent lights off and the shutters fully closed, Sakura could see that Kikyō's fur glowed very faintly - _like an ember_ \- the dim glow completely invisible except in extreme darkness. She heard Naruto let out a sleepy exclamation, and saw him run his fingers through the fur of the tail still wrapped around him.

It took at least another half hour for Kakashi to start to relax. Sakura had been valiantly attempting to stay awake, head jerking upwards every few minutes or so when she caught herself almost nodding off again. Finally, she felt the arm muscles under her head loosen a bit, and a hand rest on top of her head. When she looked up, she saw that Kakashi-sensei had opened up his Sharingan eye, and was talking in the scene around him. She remembered hearing that the Sharingan could capture memories, and hoped that her sensei was choosing to remember this moment. He finally broke his gaze from where it was watching Naruto's chest rise and fall and looked at her. There was something very sad in those eyes, and Sakura was about to ask what was wrong when her sensei spoke to her for the first time in a few hours. "Thank you."

She blinked a bit, confused at why he would thank her. His voice was hoarse, and his breathing staggered just a little bit, which Sakura could only feel because of how close she was curled into his side. Sakura wondered suddenly if Kakashi-sensei had ever hung out like this with his team. Or if he had ever hung out with anyone like this. She had never even seen him talk to anyone outside of that green spandex Jounin. Sakura wondered for the first time if her sensei was just as lonely as the rest of team 7. 

She didn't respond, choosing instead to maneuver his arm so it was slung across her shoulders, and then snuggling into his ribcage, doing her best to shove her face into the least pointy bit of his flak jacket. He hesitated for just a moment before gently placing his hand on her shoulder, being careful to not jar her arm stump. Kikyō let out a deep rumbling huff and rolled over a bit so the fur of her back brushed up against Kakashi's sandals. This time he didn't freeze up, but instead leaned his head back onto the wall, taking a shaky breath.

Sakura spent her last moments before sleep wondering if Kakashi-sensei would help her explain all this to Sasuke when he woke up.

\-------------

The next day was a lot more peaceful, though Sakura made a mental note that all further team 7 sleepovers were to be held on somewhere other than a hospital floor. Her back ached terribly and even Kikyō took a bit of extra time to stretch out and roll around. Sakura tried to copy the tiger's morning stretches, but found it annoyingly difficult with her one arm. Naruto didn't seem to be suffering from any aches or pains and gleefully dragged Sasuke's unconscious form around the room, at least until Kakashi-sensei saw this and cuffed him over the head. Kakashi acted just as nonchalant and standoffish as usual, but she secretly caught him straightening out Naruto's hair a bit, patting out some of the wrinkles in the boy's shirt, and he even helped Sakura change her bandages. Kikyō didn't really acknowledge him at all, seeming to treat him as an unwelcome, but necessary, presence. 

Naruto was back to his usual self, which apparently included no sense of self-preservation, as he gleefully leapt onto Kikyō's side and began to climb up the tiger like she was a jungle gym. Sakura and Kakashi both gaped a bit as Naruto flailed about on the giant summon's back, though it didn't look like Kikyō minded. In fact, if Sakura was deducing her facial expression correctly, the tiger found it amusing. Sakura was invited to join Naruto, and after receiving a nod from her summons, she scrambled up with a bit of a boost from Kikyō's paw. This was how the doctor found them; two children jumping around on top of a giant summon and Kakashi-sensei flipping through his orange book in the corner by Sasuke's bed. 

After the man was reassured that the tiger was not about to kill and eat the two Gennin, Naruto and Sakura got a quick check-up before the doctor ran a full-body scan on Sasuke, which took a bit longer than usual, and made Sakura worry a bit. Finally the doctor sighed and pulled his glowing hands away from Sasuke's chest. "There's really nothing I can do for him at this point. As far as we can tell, the curse mark hasn't been fully activated, and sealing it seems to have staved off whatever chakra poisoning was emanating from the seal. We could try a chakra transfusion to see if he wakes up, but it might activate the curse mark, since we don't know the parameters of the seal. Have any seal masters taken a look at it?"

Kakashi sighed and closed his book, tucking it away inside his jacket. "Jiraiya has been contacted about it, though he hasn't responded yet, or hasn't received our message. With him gone, the closest to seal masters this village has are myself and Umino Iruka, and neither of us can figure out what activates the second half of the seal. Best we can figure, it has something to do with Sasuke activating his chakra in a specific way, so a chakra transfusion might be the best shot we've got. What is his projected time to wake if there's no transfusion?"

"Without the seal being removed or a chakra transfusion, we're not sure if he will wake up."

Kakashi ran a hand through his hair and sighed, looking down at Sasuke where he lay. Naruto and Sakura exchanged a worried look. _What would happen to their team if he didn't wake up? Would their team be disbanded?_ Sakura's musings were broken by Kakashi's decision. "I volunteer for the chakra transfer. We both have lightning natured chakra, so it should be easier on him."

The doctor nodded. "Alright, I'll inform some of the nurses so we can get started setting up the monitoring equipment. If you'll follow me, we can get him situated in a different room for the transfusion."

A rumbling growl reverberated in the space, and the doctor jumped almost a foot in the air when he realized he had forgotten the massive summons just behind him. "You will not move the boy where I and the cubs cannot go. If he must be in a different room with your medical devices, then we will accompany you there."

The doctor paled. "Ah, the operating room is far too small to fit all of you, so you will have to wait in the hall. We can also only allow family members to accompany patients."

"We're the closest thing to family he's got!" Naruto shrieked in offense.

While the med nin was clearly intimidated by the giant tiger, he was admirably trying to remain firm in the medical wing's policy. Sakura thought that it wasn't a sacrifice worth being eaten for. She placed her hand on Kikyō's flank and turned back to the doctor. "Me and my summon will wait outside the door. Naruto can go in to make sure Sasuke's ok, while we guard the room from anyone trying to get in."

The doctor breathed a sigh of relief and fervently nodded. "That's fine, I'll make sure to inform the nurses and let you know when we're ready for you."

After he left, Kakashi-sensei turned to her, "Did you want to stay in the room with Sasuke as well?"

"No, I'm good with standing guard. But you'll have to tell me what's going on if something goes wrong so me and Kikyō can help out."

Kakashi gave one of his signature eye-smiles. "Of course. Once they're done, I'm sure we can have him transferred back to this room so we can all keep guard. That sound good?"

Sakura hummed in acknowledgement, before frowning and looking down. She was wearing a thin hospital gown over some chest bandages and her beat-up, dirty shorts. She didn't even have shoes on. "Do you think I can get someone to bring me some clothes? And I'd also like to shower a bit."

\-----------

After carefully showering around her wounds and scrubbing off the dirt and grime, Sakura felt much more refreshed. She dressed herself a bit haphazardly and thought that she was ready to face the world. That is, until she looked in the mirror and saw that her hair was an absolute mess. The Sound kunoichi had enjoyed tugging and ripping and pulling at it, even taking to lopping off a few chunks at one point. It essentially looked like Sakura had gone head first into a fight with a pair of scissors and badly lost. She raised her hands up to examine the damage and saw for the first time exactly what she looked like with no arm. 

It was... disconcerting. There had been something there at the space by her side for so long, and now there was nothing. She hadn't rewrapped her bandages yet, so she could clearly see the puckered skin of her shoulder where the burn warped and twisted, pulling tightly in a great, angry red patch. The scab on the end of her stump was lumpy and black and gross, and Sakura was hit with the feeling that this was real. Of course, it had been real before, but now she could fully see her new reality. This is what she looked like now. This was who she was.

Tears built up in her eyes, but she didn't feel sad or angry, just a bit numb. Because she had wanted to put her hair up into a ponytail and now she couldn't. She had reached up because she could still feel the pins-and-needles of her left hand but it wasn't there. _How was she going to put on her fancy outfits for festivals? How was she going to strain noodles when she cooked? How was she going to tailor all her long sleeved shirts?_ She watched as tears rolled down her face, feeling disconnected from her own body, like she was someone else watching her body be puppeted around. She distantly heard someone call out and the door opening and closing, but it didn't really register. She didn't know how much time had passed before the door opened again and her sensei walked up to her. She didn't really care, just continued to stare at the mirror and let the silent tears fall. After some time had passed, she spoke. "Sensei?"

"Hmm?"

"Can...can you cut my hair for me?"

He seemed to take the question very seriously, turning fully to face her. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. It looks pretty terrible right now."

Kakashi-sensei let out a small chuckle, and Sakura felt a little bit more grounded. She watched through the mirror as Kakashi set a towel around her shoulders and placed his hand at low shoulder level in the air. She reached up and placed her hand at a length just below her jaw. He nodded, and then very carefully began to cut her hair, going in small increments to ensure he didn't accidentally nick her with the kunai. Sakura just watched calmly, tears drying, as her hair fell in pink waves around her. She felt like she was slowly being reeled in, being pulled back into her own body. Little by little, the picture in the mirror changed. Until it wasn't her old self but with no arm. It became just Sakura.

Finally, Kakashi-sensei cut away the last few locks, letting her hair fall to the floor. He seemed pretty good at this, and Sakura turned her head this way and that to get a good look at his handiwork. He had tapered it a bit, so it was slightly longer in the front and higher in the back, following her jawline. She thought that if this ninja thing didn't work out for him, Kakashi would make an excellent stylist.

Apparently she has waited too long to say something, because Kakashi-sensei wilted a bit. "Ah, not to your liking? Sorry, maybe we should have brought you to a salon or some-"

She interrupted his speech by whirling around and throwing her arm around him, hugging him as tightly as she could and burying her face in his stomach. "It's perfect. You're weirdly good at this."

"Weirdly? I'll have you know, I'm good at quite a lot of things. Comes with being an adult." He rested a hand on her head and ruffled her new hair around. She laughed and tossed her head a few times, liking how her hair slapped into her face and how her actions made Kakashi laugh again. She felt lighter for having cut her hair. Like she had finished becoming this New Sakura.

"Come on, they got Sasuke ready for the chakra transfer and he needs someone to guard the door."

They walked out, Sakura with a bounce in her step and Kakashi in his usual loping gait. Naruto and Kikyō met them down the hall, and the blonde exclaimed in delight, "Sakura! Your hair! It looks great!"

She smiled widely and did a little twirl for him, being met with whoops and loud applause. Kakashi-sensei gave a few polite claps and Kikyō rumbled her approval, pulling Sakura in with a huge paw and rubbing her face all over Sakura's head, prompting a few grumbles about how she JUST got her hair fixed. Kikyō simply chuffed and began to shepard them all down the hall, leading them to the operating room where the same doctor and a few nurses waited with a bit of trepidation at the oncoming party. Sakura definitely heard one of the nurses sigh with relief when the giant tiger settled on the floor across from the room. Sakura sat down between the summon's paws and leaned back against her soft chest, letting the tiger's rumbling soothe her worried nerves. Naruto shot her a big thumbs up before following Kakashi and the doctor into the operating room.

Now, it was simply a matter of waiting and watching, something Sakura was becoming very good at.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kikyō puts her foot down

The doctor had estimated the transfer would take at least 2 hours, so Sakura made sure she was comfortable on the floor outside Sasuke's room. There were a few chairs further down the hall, but Sakura felt too warm in Kikyō's embrace to drag a bunch of chairs around. She sighed and buried her face into the tiger's chest fur, resigning herself to a boring few hours of guard duty. Kikyō remained vigilant, though she shifted her foreleg slightly so Sakura could lounge across it. 

Nothing was really happening. There were no panicked screams or wails of despair. The rest of the ward was also fairly silent, with only a few people walking through the hallways nearby, and nobody seeming interested in walking down their hallway. Her arm wasn't even bothering her that much, the doctor's session that morning having dulled the pain down to an easily ignored level. Sakura huffed. Now she kinda wished she had insisted on them being in the room, but she thought it would be pretty rude to barge in now. Kikyō leaned down and licked a few rough stripes across her forehead. "Patience cub. Don't be so eager for excitement, because that means that something would be going wrong. It is a good thing it is so quiet here."

"Yeah, I get that. But also, I've been laying down for like 2 days, and I kinda want to do something."

Kikyō grumbled something too low for Sakura to make out, before shoving the Gennin around until they were face-to-face. The tiger's massive head was wider than her whole torso, and her eyes the size of Sakura's hand. Kikyō shook her head a bit, whiskers twitching, before looking straight into Sakura's eyes. "Alright then, little cub, let's get to know each other a bit more. I am more familiar with humans than you are with tigers, so I will start.

My mother is Shikko, who is well known amongst the tigers for her fire ninjutsu. I have inherited her fire nature, though I prefer claws and teeth to long distance fighting. I am also a sensor. I have 3 siblings, which is quite unusual; tigers can have up to 4 cubs, though most litters are made up of 1 or 2. I have two brothers and one sister, and all of us have fire natures, though my sister also has lightning. I have no recollection of my father, as most tiger cubs are raised solely by the female. However, my mother has personally told me that my father attempted to take my mother's territory after we were born and she was forced to kill him. Though none of us live on the same land anymore, we do still visit each other from time to time, or one of us will call on the family for help. My personal territory is split, with some of my territory being on the ancient tiger summoning lands and some of my territory being here in this forest."

Kikyō paused for a moment, letting the information sink in a bit before continuing. "I am 70 years old, which is a respectable age for a tiger summons. I spend most of my free time patrolling my territory, finding new ways to imbue my claws and teeth with my chakra, and helping control the population of large beasts here in this forest. I also occasionally enjoy traveling around and finding out about what's happening in the human world. This is a bit strange, I suppose, since most tigers don't like to leave their territory unguarded. But since my territory is also partially within the human world, I like to stay informed on whether or not there are wars happening. Battlegrounds are excellent sources of easy meals and new scrolls to add to my collection. I do have some human paraphernalia that I have collected over the years, most of it being scrolls, books, and unusual trinkets, since I have no need for armor or weapons. Once we have reached a point in your training where you will show me your ninjutsu, I can let you look through a bit of my collection to see if there are any that fit your elemental type."

Sakura blinked. I don't think I have that many things I can talk about. She's also way older than I thought. "Well, my parents are Mebuki and Kizashi, and they're civilians. They mostly do silk and cloth trading, so they're usually off on business trips. I don't think they really wanted me to become a ninja, but they weren't mad at me for it, and they paid for my books and supplies. I don't know my elemental type, or if I'm a sensor. My chakra pool is pretty small because I'm from a civilian family. I don't think there are any other Harunos that are ninja, though I don't really visit my extended family too often. I'm 13; just had my birthday a few months ago. I spend most of my time reading at the library and doing D-ranks with my team. I like reading, memorizing cool new facts, and trying out new recipes. I don't know any ninjutsu or genjutsu, but I can do the Academy 3 pretty well, and Kakashi-sensei said I have good chakra control."

The tiger stared at her for a bit. "What is the Academy 3?"

"Oh! Sorry, it's the henge, the clone, and the kawarimi."

The tiger continued to look blankly at her. Sakura really needed to get better at learning to read her expressions.

"That is all the professional skills you know?"

Sakura winced a bit at the sharp tone. "No, I can also do the Academy taijutsu style, and I can tree-walk. I got tree-walking on my first try."

The tiger's ears flicked at that amendment, and she seemed a bit pleased. "Your very first attempt? Very impressive, few have such fine control. What did your teacher recommend after you tree-walked?"

"Um? Like, what he recommended I work on? He didn't really say anything, just told me I had better chakra control than he had thought and to go back to where our client was living. He kept training the boys though, since they hadn't gotten it yet."

Kikyō abruptly stood, depositing Sakura on the ground with a startled noise, and began to pace around, growling fiercely under her breath and rattling a few pictures on the wall. Sakura watched on, a bit confused, as the tiger continued to grumble, occasionally stopping to glare fiercely at the door across from them. It occured to Sakura that she should probably warn Kakashi-sensei that Kikyō was mad at him again. She wasn't really sure why the tiger was so angry though. Maybe she was mad at Sakura. "Um, Kikyō? Did I do something wrong?"

The summon halted, and she saw the tiger take a large breath and exhale, a few thin tendrils of smoke wafting upwards. "No cub, it is not you I am angry with. Your sensei is the one at fault, for not helping to cultivate your innate talent. Despite his strength, he is not a very good teacher. Or perhaps it is because of his strength. It matters little at this point."

Kikyō slowly slid herself back down, placing her head on her paws and letting out another long sigh, her tail quickly swishing across the tile floor. Sakura couldn't help but agree a little bit, even if it was just internally. She had kind of suspected for a while that Kakashi-sensei didn't really want to be a teacher, and he was probably only put on their team so he could help Sasuke with his Sharingan. It made sense, since he mostly just helped the Uchiha. Naruto too, but that was because Sasuke needed a sparring partner and Sakura had never been the best at physical fights. Give her a test or a strategy game though, and Sakura could wipe the floor with most of the graduating class. But Kakashi-sensei wasn't really one for debating strategy or lecturing them. He wasn't even really one for teaching them hands-on either. The Hokage had said that he chose Kakashi to lead team 7, but had he even asked their sensei?

"Hey, Kikyō?"

"Yes?"

"Please don't kill sensei."

"Hmmm."

"That wasn't a no."

"It was a maybe. I am currently debating the pros and cons."

Sakura scooched across the floor until she could flop over in front of the tiger's muzzle. She made her eyes as wide and sad-looking as possible, making sure to quiver her bottom lip a bit. Kikyō snorted, placing a giant paw gently over Sakura's face. "Stop making me feel bad, I'm trying to plan how best to eat him."

Sakura made a few sobbing noises, squirming around on the floor as though she was in the throes of grief. Kikyō laughed out loud and very carefully bapped her paw a few times against Sakua's forehead, prompting even more fake wailing. Finally the great tiger grumbled a bit good-naturedly and set her head lightly on the girl's chest. "Fine. I will not kill and eat him, but I reserve the right to lecture him on the importance of teaching cubs. I suppose we need to keep him around anyways to teach you weapons. And to have him fill out all that paperwork humans seem to need all the time. I'm sure that being a ninja is supposed to involve paperwork somehow."

Sakura laughed at the image of Kikyō turning Kakashi into her personal assistant, and the tiger rumbled out a chuckle as well. With the summon's head on top of her chest, Sakura almost felt like her bones were rattling around inside, and the deep base made tingles go up and down her spine and her skin get goosebumps. Eventually they settled back down, Sakura snuggling into the warm embrace of a giant tiger. Once again, on the hospital floor.

\----------

At some point, Sakura had taken to telling Kikyō about some of her favorite books, and was describing the plot to an interesting murder-mystery when the door across the hall opened, revealing the tired, but pleased-looking doctor from before. Sakura went bounding into the room, seeing a grinning Naruto and an exhausted sensei. Kikyō stayed behind, grumbling something rude about the size of human doorways. Sasuke was still asleep on the operating table, but he was twitching a bit, like he was dreaming. The doctor turned to address team 7 while the nurses cleaned and packed up equipment. "The transfer was a success, and didn't seem to activate his seal. He woke up briefly just a minute or two ago, but has since gone unconscious again. This is normal; recovering from chakra poisoning is a rough process. He'll most likely wake up and fall back asleep a few more times today before he's truly lucid. It'll help if someone he knows is with him at these times, though he won't really be 'awake'. Let me know if he hasn't woken up fully by this evening, and I'll see if he requires another transfer."

Naruto waved her over to him. "The doc said that he's gonna be ok, and I told Sasuke where we were before he passed out again. Couldn't really understand what he was mumbling, but 'idiot' was in there somewhere so he probably recognized me!"

Sakura felt something ease in her chest and she returned Naruto's grin full-force. She then turned to Kakashi-sensei, who watched them tiredly from the other side of the bed. "Kikyō's really mad at you again. I thought she was gonna bust the door down to yell at you."

Sakura saw a bead of sweat run down his face. "Excellent. Great. Unfortunately, I was just about to go get something to eat, so I'll have to be yelled at some other time."

"What do you want me to tell her?"

"I was hoping I wouldn't need to say anything. No need to tell her I was just going to go get a snack."

"She'll be more mad if you don't say something; I had to really convince her not to eat you."

Kakashi paled further. "Ah. Well then, tell her I'm recovering from being drained of chakra for 2 hours and that she's in charge of you three."

She nodded decisively and watched as he disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Naruto looked over at her, a bit worried. "Is your tiger really gonna eat Kaka-sensei?"

"It's 50/50 at this point. If he brings her back something to eat, he'll probably increase his chances of staying alive."

"Cool. C'mon, help me move Sasuke's bed back to our room."

When they exited into the hallway, Kikyō was understandably a bit peeved. "Where did your sensei go? I have a few words for him."

Sakura smiled placatingly. "He's going to get us all something to eat, and to rest a bit after the chakra draining. He said that you were in charge of the three of us."

The tiger stared for a moment, ears flicking, before a wide grin took over her face. "Perfect. Until I give command back to the dog sensei, you will all take orders from me. Now, let's get back to the bigger room and set up a guard rotation."

Both Gennin saluted her immediately. "Yes Ma'am!"

\--------

After Sasuke was carefully hustled back to their old room, Sakura and Naruto took up posts on either side of his bed. The guards already in the room seemed amused by their actions, until Kikyō snapped her teeth at one that started to laugh, making him jump and clutch at one of his swords. Kikyō for her part prowled around the room a few times, sniffing at corners and peering out of the windows. At one point, she partially reared up, sticking her muzzle under one of the ceiling tiles and looking around in the space above the room. She towered at almost 10 feet, even angled as she was against the wall. Sakura thought that was really clever, and made a mental note to double check above ceilings from now on. Eventually, the tiger seemed satisfied with the state of the hospital room because she walked straight over to Naruto and sat in front of him. Naruto had to crane his neck back to meet her stare, even sitting in a chair. "Alright, little cub. I am in charge of you and your education until I see fit to grant leadership back to the dog. You said before that your name was Naruto. What position do you hold on this team?"

Naruto squinted at her. "Uh, prankster? We don't really have positions."

Kikyō closed her eyes and let out a large sigh, blowing a few sparks out that Naruto valiantly attempted to snatch out of the air. "Very well. Since your education and leadership has been lacking up until this point, we will start from the very beginning. What skills do you bring to this team?"

Naruto perked up considerably. "Oh! Well I'm really tough! Sasuke is always trying to beat me up but I don't stay down too long! I also have a really cool shadow clone, and I can do an awesome henge. Hmm...I guess I'm good with traps too; I like to prank the masked ninja that follow me around, and I got some of them pretty good a few times. And I can be pretty sneaky. I guess I'm not too good with ninjutsu yet, and Kaka-sensei says my fighting is 'unrefined' or something like that. I graduated at the bottom of the class 'cause reading is kinda hard for me, but I did pretty well in the fights!"

Kikyō took in Naruto's rambling speech with sincerity, taking a moment after he finished to mull over the information. "I'll most likely have you act as a long to mid range fighter for the team. Your shadow clones - very impressive by the way - will add an unexpected edge to your trap making. You'll no doubt be the ninjutsu powerhouse of the team with your reserves, and I'm guessing that your endurance and chakra pool is due to the fact that you are a jinchurriki?"

Naruto froze. Sakura frowned, _what was a jinchurriki?_ Her blonde teammate began making frantic hand signals - none of which were actual Konoha handsigns - and began ushering a confused Kikyō a bit further away from the bed. The summon followed, and Naruto began furiously whispering something to her. His expression was unusually serious, so Sakura tuned him out and focused on straightening out Sasuke's blanket and pillows. 

They were over in their corner for quite some time, and Sakura valiantly tamped down the urge to evesdrop. It was clearly something that she wasn't supposed to hear. Finally, the two came back over, Naruto nervously glancing between Sakura and her summons, and the tiger staring blankly ahead. Kikyō stood there for almost another minute, Naruto getting more and more twitchy as time went by. The tiger abruptly looked up into Sakura's eyes. "Had it not been for the fact that you would suffer for it, I would kill your Hokage myself."

Sakura gaped. Naruto gaped. The two guards in the corner broke position to gape. Kikyō plowed on as though she hadn't just floored everyone in the room. "The rule that is keeping your teammate's abilities a secret does not apply to me, as I am not a citizen of Konoha. I will also eat anyone that attempts to force me into obeying village rules."

She turned back to Naruto. "It is, of course, your decision whether or not I tell Sakura."

Naruto glanced over to Sakura for a second before looking down, lost in concentration. The silence stretched on until Naruto finally heaved a shaky breath. "Ok, you can tell her. Just-" he looked to Sakura, expression unbearably sad, "-just try not to hate me too much, ok?"

Before Sakura could protest, Kikyō began to speak. "Your teammate is the jinchurriki of the nine-tailed fox, one of nine jinchurriki. He is, essentially, a container for the bijuu itself, and holds the fox inside of a seal on his body. He has access to the bijuu's chakra and will eventually be able to have use of it's tails. He has not yet communicated with the fox, as far as I am able to gather. The Hokage is well aware of this, and has imposed silence on any Konoha citizen who knows this information."

This was. _How…? How many people know? Is this why all the villagers scoff at him? Why our clients always treat him harsher than the rest of team 7?_ Sakura suddenly remembered that day on that bridge, when the roiling, bubbling red chakra washed over them all in Naruto's rage. It had been terrifying. 

But, Sakura watched as Naruto hung his head at the information, expecting rejection, or maybe even a blow. She also remembered the little group of academy students following him with adoration in their eyes. Remembered how he was much more emotionally mature than expected, skillfully calling out challenges to Sasuke when he was in a particularly dark mood. Sakura hadn't really been there for the Kyuubi attack, having been a baby at the time. She didn't see the giant demon fox when she looked at Naruto. She just saw her teammate. The dumb, brash boy that wanted to be Hokage one day. 

Sakura hopped down from her chair and walked around the bed, seeing how Naruto became more tense the closer she got. He was staunchly avoiding her eyes and gripping his hands in the fabric of his shirt tightly. Sakura wasn't really sure what to say, all her thoughts and emotions jumbled up inside her skull. So she settled on carefully placing an arm around him and pulling him into a tight hug. "I'm not ever gonna hate you. And no giant fox is gonna change that." 

Naruto tensed for a moment, before flinging his arms around Sakura and burying his face in her shoulder. The girl grit her teeth through the spike of pain and very carefully did not mention the wet spot on her shoulder where Naruto was attempting to hide his tears. The tiger next to them rumbled her approval, but let them hug it out in peace.

Naruto eventually pulled away, sniffling slightly and straightening their shirts out a bit. "Thanks Sakura. You're really nice, ya know?"

"Well, you're really nice too, even after all of the villagers have been treating you like garbage."

"Eh, I'm used to it by now."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "You shouldn't have to be used to it, it shouldn't have happened. If anyone says anything to you while I'm around I'll punch them. And just point out the people who are really mean to you and I'll let Kikyō chase them around a bit."

Naruto laughed, but waved his hands at her. "It's ok, thanks. I think I get in enough trouble without your tiger chasing down a bunch of civilians."

Sakura sniffed, but let the tiger thing drop, though she noticed he didn't say anything about her not punching people. She'd make a mental note of that. They settled back down in their respective chairs and Naruto answered all of the questions he could about what being a jinchurriki was like, with Kikyō chiming in every once in a while to clarify what a bijuu was. Naruto was excited to learn that there were 8 other jinchurriki out there, and he and Sakura made a game out of creating the most elaborate powers for these mysterious shinobi. The way the tiger kept chuffing and flicking her ears, Sakura was sure Kikyō knew their actual abilities, but was too amused to interrupt them.

\-----------

Sasuke woke up once more about half an hour later, again only for him to fall back asleep almost immediately. Though Sakura attempted to debrief him on the situation, he passed out a few sentences into her report with little more than a halfhearted 'hnn'. Naruto giggled a bit at her forlorn expression.

Time seemed to pass slowly after that, with both Naruto and Sakura coming up with weirder and weirder games to play. The bandana man, Genma, came in at the guard shift to the two Gennin attempting to roll Kikyō across the room. The tiger just sat perfectly still as the children heaved and pushed, making absolutely no progress. Sakura perked up considerably at recognizing the ninja, and waved enthusiastically, which Genma returned with a smile and a nod. He was visibly startled when both Gennin came galloping up to him, Sakura politely inquiring whether or not they could borrow a few kunai to train with - "No, not in the hospital wing " - and Naruto demanding a spar - "Definitely not in the hospital wing."

Kikyō nodded to the increasingly bewildered ninja before rolling over and taking a well-deserved nap, content with Genma to play babysitter.

Sakura had previously thought that Kakashi-sensei was one of the coolest ninja in the village, but he was quickly dethroned as Genma gave into their whining and showed them how he could spit his senbon so fast that you didn't even see them in the air. He was also surprisingly patient with them, even when Sakura rambled on about a cool poison she'd heard about in a book or when Genma had to snatch a handful of senbon from Naruto before they could be stuffed in his mouth. 

They eventually coerced him into explaining the function of all of the weapons he had on his person, and Kikyō ambled up to them at this point, settling down behind the children so they could use the tiger as a cushion. Genma was understandably hesitant when the summon joined them, but all three of them seemed actively interested in his lecture. He quickly fell into a rhythm as he showed all three the basics of how each weapon was used and why, sometimes demonstrating a few stances with the swords he unsealed from a scroll. He also went over care instructions for each weapon, prompting both Sakura and Naruto to sheepishly admit that they didn't sharpen their kunai nearly as frequently as Genma recommended. Kikyō smacked both over the head for that.

Naruto grumbled a bit at that, but perked right up when Sasuke started mumbling again, quickly dashing over to the boy's side. Sakura waited on the floor by Genma, being fairly certain that it was another false alarm. Her hunch was proven correct when Naruto let out a huge sigh and slumped against the bed. He didn't seem like he was going to rejoin them, so Sakura hesitatingly looked up at the ninja in front of her. "Um, Genma-san?"

"Yes? Did you have a question about the weapons I went over?"

"Kinda. What kind of weapon would be good for me? I mean, you know, because of the one arm?"

Genma gave her a smile. "Any of them."

"Even the swords?"

"The smaller swords I have on me can be wielded single handedly or dual handedly. Though you'll probably want to steer clear of larger swords and weapons, if only because you won't have as much maneuverability with them. There are also plenty of non-traditional weapons that you can use, or even have custom made. Have you decided if you're going to get a prosthetic or not?"

Sakura hadn't really thought that far ahead. She hadn't really been thinking beyond surviving these exams. Hadn't been expecting to survive these exams. It felt off now, to try and envision her future. She used to daydream about her future all the time; a strong kunoichi who was able to gain Sasuke's respect and attention and beat anyone in her path. But she knew now - better than most - just how quickly futures can change. Even now, she couldn't shake that vision of her old dream, and her older self who was whole and untouched and perfect. It made her chest get tight and her gut churn. 

Some of her thoughts must have shown through on her face because Genma was quick to backpedal. "Hey, there's no rush. You've been through a lot; it's gonna take time to think through these kinds of things. It's only one option out of many. I'd recommend giving some thought to it, but also getting the thoughts of others who are in similar situations. It might help you find an avenue you want to pursue."

Sakura's mind was still churning, spiraling down a rabbit hole she was trying to pull herself out of. She could recognize that she wasn't really processing his words anymore, wasn't really paying attention to her surroundings. All she could feel was the weight of a hand that wasn't there anymore. 

This was, of course, when Kakashi finally decided to show back up, bearing 2 plastic bags that contained food, going by the smell. The strong aroma of chicken stir-fry broke through a bit of her haze, and Sakura looked up to see that she had been maneuvered at some point to lay down with her head on Kikyō's paw. Genma was sitting down nearby, all his previous weaponry hidden away, even the senbon in his mouth. He was still talking, and Sakura could now make out the rumbles of her tiger's soft voice as well. She didn't remember laying down. Or remember seeing Genma put his stuff away. She could hear him talking now though. "- let her come back on her own, don't try shaking her or forcing her back. She seems to respond well to whatever you're doing to vibrate your chest, so that's something to keep in mind."

She craned her head to get a better look around - _what else has happened while I was like that? How long was I like that?_ \- and Genma caught the movement and smiled gently at her. "Hey kid, welcome back. No need to panic; your tiger and I kept guard while you were away for a bit. Your sensei has just come into the room, but no one else has entered or left. Just try taking a deep breath for me."

It was only after he spoke that Sakura realized her breath was coming in rapid gasps. _When did that happen? Why couldn't she remember these things?_ The girl took a moment to find her breathing again, slowly working her way down back to a normal level. She still felt twitchy about having lost herself in her own head, but relaxed a bit knowing that Genma and Kikyō had kept watch. Something shuffled by her head and Naruto's face popped into view. "You good now Sakura? I can talk some more if that'll help."

She took a few more moments to mentally check through her body, feeling her weight and the cold tile and Kikyō's paw. She felt more stable now, more settled in her body. When had she floated away? "No, I think I've got it now. Thanks Naruto."

He grinned, helping her sit up when she pulled herself forward. "No problem! You wanna eat something or wait a bit?"

"Wait a bit."

"Ok! I'll make sure to save you a bunch of noodles."

She nodded, and turned to watch Naruto snatch one of the bags from her sensei, who stood awkwardly around the doorway. He seemed to have regained a bit more life, though still seemed drained from the earlier operation. She gave him a weak smile when they locked eyes, and that must have helped him make a decision because he squared his shoulders and marched right towards them. His strides were purposeful and he quickly dove his hand into the second bag and tossed something through the air at Kikyō, who had rolled over to watch him approach. The steak hit the ground with a wet slap, the tiger having made no move to grab it. She simply stared unblinking at Kakashi. Sakura's sensei no longer looked as determined as before. "Ah. I got you some food while I was out."

Kikyō lifted a delicate brow. "A cold steak that you threw onto the floor? How generous of you. You really shouldn't have."

Kakashi shuffled a bit in place, before straightening back up and squaring his shoulders. He had a steely look in his eye. Sakura had the terrible, sinking realization that her sensei was about to irreparably put his foot in his mouth. She hoped that Kikyō wouldn't actually kill him.

"Look, I can understand that you feel protective of your new summoner; Sakura-chan is in a particularly vunerable state right now. But I think you're taking this too far. You're trying to force her into a life that she's not equipped to handle right now, and I think you need to back off and give her some space. I know that you're the one who saved my team from the Sound ninja, but you're also the one who crippled one of them. Hanging around right now might not be good for her. So as captain of team 7, I will ask you politely to leave."

The room was dead silent. Naruto had frozen across the room, eyes darting from Kakashi to Kikyō. Genma reached out and gently grabbed Sakura's arm, pulling her a bit closer to him and further from the possible fight that was brewing. The air was thick with tension and Kakashi was wound tight as a bow string. Kikyō, however, appeared lax. She took in his speech with no reactions, blinking languidly up at him from where she lay sprawled. "No."

"No, you won't leave?"

"No, you're not team captain. I am."

Kakashi was floored. "I am captain of team 7."

"You are not. You relinquished control of your team to me while you were indisposed. I have not yet granted you that control back. Until I see fit to do so, I am acting captain of this team."

"You're a summon, you can't be the captain. And I've clearly returned to my duties."

"As far as I can tell, you are still unfit to teach these cubs. In ' _Konoha Guide Rules and Regulations of Chains of Command'_ , it states that should a team leader become indisposed for any reason, the next available person suitable for the role, or having been given the role of captain, shall assume the position. There is no mention whether this person must be human or not, and since you have explicitly left me in charge of these cubs, I will declare - for the ninja here as my witness - that I do not find you suitable to take back your position of captain of team 7. Either gain some emotional maturity or go whine to the Hokage about it. Either way, it's no longer my concern."

The room was silent once more. Sakura could see that Kakashi-sensei's visible eye was wider than she had ever seen it, and his hands were clenched at his sides. Genma had tensed above her, clearly preparing for some kind of conflict to break out. There was a beat where Sakura felt like she couldn't breathe; the air in the room was too thick. Then Kakashi moved.

It went so fast that even though Sakura's eyes had been open the whole time, she didn't see what had happened until Kakashi froze, mid position. He was in the process of revealing his Sharingan, arm still hovering in the air next to his head. His other hand was partially drawing a kunai, halted in it's movement, but still twitching. Kakashi-sensei was frozen in place because Kikyō was no longer laying on the ground. She was behind him, her jaws locked around his throat.

Her teeth, as long as Sakura's forearm, didn't pierce the skin, but the girl could see the indentations where the huge fangs pressed harshly into Kakashi's neck, the teeth meeting in the middle to fully lock the man into place. One of the tiger's paws was curled around Kakashi's midsection, the giant claws just grazing the space below the protective flak jacket. Kakashi and Kikyō remained frozen there, but Sakura hadn't even seen either move, just like how she hadn't seen Kikyō leave in the forest. They were apart one second and then Kakashi had tensed his muscles and then they were held in this macabre illustration. Kakashi's grasp tightened incrementally against his kunai handle and Kikyō's claws pressed gently into his lower stomach.

Sakura realized that she hadn't taken a breath in a while and gasped in a lungful of air, beginning to shake from where she was pressed into Genma's side. The tiger's eyes flickered to her for a split second, but Kikyō did not loosen her jaws. Instead, a strange scraping sound came from the ceiling above. The room tensed once more as a few of the ceiling tiles came crashing down, before a large shape lept gracefully to the hospital floor. Kikyō, or a clone of Kikyō, sat up from her crouch and surveyed the scene before her with clear distaste. She finally met Kakashi's eyes and heaved a great sigh. "You realize that attacking me is not going to make you captain again. If anything, all it has done was solidify the fact that you are not yet suited to this role. Attacking a summons with your Sharingan out while in a hospital room? Have you no sense of decency? On top of that, you're blatantly attacking people while there is a high alert out for a Sannin. You're going to bring all of ANBU down on us the second you release a jutsu, and since Orochimaru is a shape-changer, they're not going to be too picky about who they attack."

Genma muttered out a curse, and Sakura clutched tighter to his arm. The tiger's ear flicked backwards, but she didn't move her gaze from where it was pinning Kakashi in place. "Listen to me, and listen well. If I hadn't seen how you behaved with the cubs last night, I would assume you wanted them all dead."

Kakashi's breath left him in a shaky huff, but he didn't have time to respond before Kikyō pushed ahead. "They don't have the slightest clue how to work together, how to play to each other's strengths, cover for their weaknesses. They don't even know their damned elemental types. You have set them all up for slaughter by not giving them the skills to survive. You have a team comprised of a civilian girl, a jinchurriki, and an Uchiha. Every single one of them fits into the category of 'ends up dead sooner rather than later' and I will not stand by and let you throw them aside. I'm sure you've got some convoluted reasoning you tell yourself at night to help you sleep, but the truth is that you have proactively mourned for their loss and dug their graves. I will not let these children's deaths be just another motivational tool for you. You are going to pull your head out of your ass and stop looking at these children like they're already dead. You may be a dog, but I will not sit here and let you roll belly-up because you were afraid to get attached. Now, are you going to pull yourself together and help teach these cubs, or am I going to have to escort you out of this building?"

Sakura couldn't really tell what expression Kakashi-sensei was making, emotions flickering across his face before he finally seemed to settle on grief. He suddenly looked so tired and defeated, like a worn puppet whose last few strings had snapped, leaving him sprawled out and unable to move. This was not the rude, strong, unflappable sensei that she knew, but maybe Sakura had never seen the real Kakashi at all. Maybe all she had seen before was a front for this tired man in front of her.

Naruto stood up, making everyone in the room turn to look. He walked across the room, stepping around a few ceiling tiles until he was right next to Kakashi. He spoke calmly and quietly, out of his usual boisterous character. "We're not gonna die. I know I can't promise that, but I can try as hard as I can to make it real. I know you said before that a lot of people you know are on the memorial stone, and that they're not here anymore. But we're here."

Naruto reached up and slowly pulled away Kikyō's paw, the summons following his gentle movements until the tiger could step backwards, jaws releasing Kakashi. But the man didn't move, frozen instead by Naruto's gentle sincerity. Sakura could hear Kakashi's hitching breaths from where she sat, still huddled against Genma's solid presence. Naruto gently wrapped his arms as far around their sensei as he could, gripping his fists into the fabric of Kakashi's shirt. "We're here and we're gonna help you and you're gonna help us and we're gonna be like a big family, ok?"

Kakashi's hand shook as he lowered it down, almost afraid to touch. He carefully combed his fingers through Naruto's unruly hair, breath coming in quiet gasps. Then Kakashi fell to his knees and broke, clinging to Naruto like a lifeline as silent sobs wracked his chest. 

Sakura immediately squirmed her way out of Genma's hold, almost tripping in her haste to get to them. They all collided in a tangle of limbs as both children attempted to smother the Kakashi in hugs, the man grasping them to his chest as he stuttered out apologies. Sakura was mad and sad and happy all at once, unsure how to really feel about the Kakashi of before but so sad for the Kakashi of now. So she just settled for giving the boys hugs and sorting out feelings later. She kinda wished that everything would stop happening all at once so she could have some time to think and process and maybe mourn a bit for her old future. But for now, she was fine with getting snot and tears on her shirt if it meant she got to hold two of her precious people close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! Sorry about taking a bit of time with this one; I've been taking on a lot more hours at work. To make up for it, I threw in an extra thousand words. I wanted to have Sasuke wake up this chapter, but Kikyō took the reigns a bit.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura inflicts property damage and several good boys appear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the long wait time in this chapter! I've been working to try and get my ADHD medicated so it stops interrupting so much of my life. But hey! Sasuke's here! For some reason, I just could not get his character right, but I think I've got it down now!
> 
> ALSO! For those of you who read the previous chapter, I cleaned up Kikyō's speech a bit and added a drawing at the end! I really need to stop writing at 3 in the morning, I start rambling too much.

The team was a bit of a wreck after that, with both Naruto and Sakura clinging to Kakashi long after the man had stopped crying. He was, at one point, forced to drag the both of them across the room when the Gennin refused to let go of him, prompting delighted shrieking as he walked normally and not like a man whose legs were weighed down with children. Kikyō's clone went back up into the ceiling to keep guard and the tiger herself made a point to herd the group closer to where Sasuke was resting. With how often the tiger acted as a shepard to the team, Sakura felt more like she got a giant dog summon instead of a tiger. She didn't say that out loud though, because she knew that Kikyō would cuff her over the head for it. 

The three humans and one giant tiger settled around Sasuke's bed, the kids working furiously to shovel down noodles while Kakashi settled next to Naruto and propped open his usual book. The boy took a brief moment to scoot his chair as close as possible to Kakashi's before going back to inhaling his food. Sakura had to place her take out container on the side of the bed and was careful not to spill any on the sheets. Naruto suddenly stopped, turning a bit sheepishly to Kikyō and holding out half a container of noodles. "Hey, did you want some? You haven't eaten at all since we got here!"

Kikyō snorted. "Ah, no thank you. Human food is not to my preference. Besides, I ate several contestants in the forest the other day, so I will be sustained until I can go hunting again."

The air around the hospital bed became incredibly strained, and Sakura worked to eat her noodles a bit faster before she could lose her appetite. Kakashi fully buried his face into his book, and Sakura was pretty sure that he couldn't actually read it when it was that close to his face. Naruto, somehow the most socially adept member of team seven, saw the rising tension and attempted to tactfully break the ice by demonstrating his best impression of the Diamyō's wife.

When Sasuke finally woke only ten minutes later, it was to his team surrounding him, laughing and smiling and making fools of themselves as they all vied for the best Hokage impersonation. Naruto had made creative use of the leftover plastic bags and had fashioned himself a Hokage hat, while Kakashi had the man's voice down to a tee. Sakura was the best at his manner of speech and Kikyō wisely did not enter the competition. Naruto was the first to notice his teammate's arrival. "Hey! Sasuke! You're awake! Are you actually awake or are you going to pass out again?"

Sakura reached over the bed and smacked Naruto's forehead lightly. "Naruto, that's a terrible way to wake someone up, you're supposed to debrief them on what they missed while they were out."

"Sorry. Hey, while you were out, Sakura became a total badass and you got healed from your poison seal. Also, we got a new team captain."

Sasuke seemed a bit confused, but it quickly switched to alarm when Kikyō sauntered up the side of the bed and made direct eye contact with him. He struggled for a moment to sit up before Kakashi placed a hand on his shoulder to steady and help him up. The tiger waited until Sasuke wasn't about to bolt before introducing herself. "Hello. I am Kikyō. I will be acting captain to team 7 for the time being. I am also Sakura's personal summons."

Sasuke calmed a bit more when she started talking, but fully settled into disgruntled confusion, shrugging off Kakashi's hand. "Summons? Wait, where am I? What poison seal?"

Kakashi answered, stowing away his book. "You're currently in the tower at the center of the Forest of Death. You're in the medical wing because the seal that was placed on you was poisoning your chakra coils. It has since been sealed away, but it's not a permanent solution. The ninja who gave you that seal was the Sannin Orochimaru, who had taken the place of one of the competetors in the exam. While he is currently still on the loose, we have guards stationed within this room and around the tower in case he attempts to poison or attack anyone else."

Sasuke did his best to process this. "But, how am I in the tower? Did we get disqualified?"

"Ah, no. You're still in the running. While you and Naruto were injured, Sakura carried you two through the forest. She also fended off attacks from a Sound team sent by Orochimaru. If it hadn't been for her, none of you would have made it back at all."

Sasuke finally turned to look at her. His eyes were piercing when they met hers, an aura of disbelief over his features. Sakura was excited that he was awake, but more than that she was terrified. Terrified that he would still see how weak she was, how cowardly. She expected him to tell her off, tell her how pathetic it was that they all still had to end up in the hospital. Tell her how annoying she was. Sakura shrunk back into herself from his stare. He almost seemed like he was about to say something cutting, but his eyes flickered down for a brief moment and he froze. His gaze had landed on the empty space at her left side. Sakura looked down a bit listlessly, lifting up her stump so that he could see the way her sleeve dangled with nothing in it.  _ Was he disgusted by her now? _ Sasuke tried to speak a few more times, opening and closing his mouth, before rasping out, "How…?"

Sakura just looked at him, trying to pour all of her courage and sincerity into her gaze, as little of it as there was right now. "You and Naruto were going to die. So I had to give something up to let you live "

He stared at her open-mouthed, face flickering through shock and fear and guilt, before settling on disbelief. "Why? Why did you do it? You can't become a ninja now."

Sakura grit her teeth, familiar rage bubbling over her previous fear. "I did it because you and Naruto are my teammates, and I would never abandon you guys, not for anything. And I'm still going to be a ninja. I'm going to be the fiercest ninja Konoha has ever seen, and no missing arm is gonna stop me."

Naruto leapt up, pumping a fist in the air. "Yeah! Sakura is so cool and strong now! She kept a whole team of ninja from killing us, and then made friends with a giant tiger, and then got us to the middle of the forest! She's the coolest ninja out of the Rookie 9!"

Sakura beamed up at Naruto, bolstered by his confidence in her.

Sasuke still looked a bit shocked, but there was a strange emotion in his eyes now. Sakura couldn't quite place it. "And you really got us here?  _ You _ did?"

Sakura ground her teeth and was about to reply when Kikyō's deep growl reverberated, making Sasuke flinch and turn wide eyes to the tiger. "You would do well to put faith in your teammates. You would have been slaughtered had Sakura not protected you. Though I was the one who dispatched the Sound team, it was Sakura who evaded them for hours, carrying both you and the blonde. Doubting her will do nothing but ensure that your teamwork falls apart when you need it most."

Sasuke did his best to glare at Kikyō. Sakura remembered that glare being much more intimidating before, but now it was almost childish in comparison to Kikyō's violent snarls and the cruel jeers of the Sound nin. Sasuke sneered, spitting like an offended kitten. "I don't need teamwork. Teammates will only slow me down in my goals."

Sakura could feel herself shrinking in on herself. She had imagined that Sasuke would be impressed, had imagined that he would finally see her as an equal and then they could all curl up with Kikyō again. They could finally be a team. But Sasuke was curling his lip like the thought of Sakura being equal to him was unthinkable and Sakura felt like the rug was just pulled out from under her.  _ Did her sacrifice mean nothing? Was her suffering not enough? When would she finally prove herself? _ Sakura saw red.

Kikyō was about to respond when Sakura brought her fist down, buckling the metal guardrail around the bed and causing the gurney to tilt precariously. When she met Sasuke's eyes, there was no trace of her previous hesitation and meekness. She was furious. "I was attacked and chased and hurt for hours so I could get you to safety. I carried you through this whole damned forest. I let Kikyō eat my arm so that you could live! And now you're telling me that you don't need my help? You think I'm still weak?"

Sakura snarled, feeling her chakra roil in a tightly controlled wave. Sasuke stared at her wide-eyed, startled at her uncharacteristic show of anger towards him. Naruto was holding up his hands in a placating manner, looking between her and the crumpled metal under her fist. Kakashi-sensei had wiped his face of emotion once more, sitting tense in his chair on the edge of his seat. Sakura could feel Kikyō press herself into Sakura's shoulder, trying to ground her in the present. But Sakura wanted to stew in her rage. Wanted to snarl and bite and wail and hit something. She had always tamped those emotions down, always wanted to stay pretty for Sasuke. But Sakura only had one arm and didn't think she could ever fit back into her pretty girl mold. She didn't think she wanted to fit back in. 

"I'm your teammate, whether you like it or not! And even though you're mean to me, I'm gonna look out for you. I know you got hurt really bad, and that your brother did a bunch of terrible things and you're really angry about it, but that doesn't mean you get to treat me like garbage just because you're mad."

Kakashi visibly winced from across the bed, and looked like he was about to interject before Sakura pushed forward. "And I know you think I'm weak and useless, but you don't know me at all. I graduated top of the class too, you know. I can help you in your goal."

Sakura took a few calming breaths before sitting back down in her chair, fully facing Sasuke. Her stump ached badly and her pain was just feeding into her previous rage. Kikyō leaned down and pressed her head against Sakura's, sitting down behind the girl and curling forward and around her small form. Sasuke had that strange expression on his face again, and Sakura tentatively thought that it might be hope. "Look, your big goal as a ninja is to kill your brother, right? But, he-" Sakura took a moment to pick her words carefully "-he took out a lot of people in one night. He's really strong. And I know that we're just Gennin, but I have Kikyō now, and Kakashi-sensei is really strong, and Naruto never gives up. And if you ever need someone to fight with you…"

Sakura met Sasuke's eyes decisively. "I'll fight next to you with everything I've got."

Sasuke's breathing was a touch staggered, and Sakura felt like he was boring a hole straight through to her soul with his gaze. Sakura could still feel her residual rage just under the surface, and had to resist the urge to tamp it down. She wasn't going to push her anger away anymore. Instead, Sakura envisioned it taking a different shape; a lump of white-hot metal that she could mold and cast into something useful.

Naruto placed his hand on Sasuke's arm, prompting the Uchiha to whip his head around to face him. Naruto took a moment to look at his teammate before cracking one of his signature thousand-watt smiles. "Yeah, we got your back! We'll all get strong and then kick your brother's ass! Believe it!"

Kakashi cuffed Naruto over the head. "Language."

Naruto's smile didn't diminish one bit, and Sakura saw Sasuke's chest hitch a few times. Naruto moved his grip downward until he was clasping Sasuke's hand. "We'll be the strongest team out there!"

Sakura grabbed Sasuke's other hand, giving the boy a feral grin. "And then we'll thrash Orochimaru too."

Naruto crowed a victory cry and Kikyō rumbled in agreement. Kakashi didn't say anything, but he reached over and mussed Sasuke's hair, eliciting a startled huff. But when the boy looked up, he had the faintest smile on his face.

  
  


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Naruto held on to Sasuke's hand for almost 2 hours. Sakura eventually had to let go to toss their trash, but Naruto remained glued to Sasuke's side, filling him in on the events of the hospital. Sasuke tugged at their joined hands a bit, but when Naruto didn't let go he simply settled back down, resigned to his fate. Sakura didn't take up hand-holding again; she hadn't realized that there was that much sweating involved when she fantasized about it. Kikyō prowled around the room a few more times, Sasuke's eyes warily following her until she flopped over by the door, striking up a hushed conversation with Genma, who still looked a bit intimidated by her. When Sasuke turned inquisitive eyes on Sakura, she sighed and scooted her chair to be closer to the bent bedframe. Naruto and Kakashi listened in as well, though they had been very briefly regaled with the events of the previous day. 

The boys stayed silent through her retelling of the chase, and she did her best not to stutter or breathe too quickly. She felt the same intrusion at telling them about Kikyō's words to her, her promise. Sakura paused in her narrative, looking down at the empty space at her side. "I just, lifted up my arm and let her take it. I don't really know how the cut is so clean, or why it got burned, but when I woke up the next morning I wasn't bleeding out. It hurt so bad that for a long time I didn't really realize I was awake. You guys were still asleep, but Kikyō stayed on guard through the night. She helped me calm down and got the scrolls. She had to go out and find one of them, so I stayed back and made sure nobody snuck up on us. After she got back, Kikyō picked up Sasuke in her mouth and I held onto Naruto on her back. It took almost 10 minutes to get up there because my arm still hurt really bad and Kikyō is really tall. But we made it. Iruka-sensei met us after I completed the riddle and he tried to attack Kikyō but it didn't really do anything. And yeah. That's what happened."

Sakura wasn't looking up; she was a bit scared of what their reactions would be. While she knew intellectually that Naruto would always support her and Kakashi-sensei had changed since Kikyō pinned him, she still thought that there was a chance they'd scoff at her, not believe her.

"Does it hurt?"

Sakura saw how Sasuke tried to keep his expression blank but it wasn't nearly as good as Kikyō's poker face."Yeah, it hurts. Even with the pain medication. It makes me tired and gives me headaches. But it's not as bad as it was in the forest; I got some dirt on it when I was guarding you guys and it felt like it was being eaten again."

Sasuke flinched a bit and Naruto frowned. "Wait, so it was true? Your big tiger really ate your arm?"

Sakura nodded at Naruto. "Yeah. She said I had to give her something to sign her contract, but I didn't really have anything. Nothing except me."

"That seems far too high a price." Kakashi said, narrowing his eye. "Most summoning contracts only require you to write your name in blood."

"Incorrect."

Kikyō stood from her lounging position by the door and padded over to the bed. "All summoning contracts require a test that the summoner must pass. Most of the summons you see are rather  _ domesticated _ , and have lowered their standards so more humans can pass their tests. Though you believe there was no test, I guarantee that it was simply a test you did not know was being taken. However," the tiger's eyes raked over Kakashi, "the contracts you have encountered are in the minority. In the hundreds of summons within the summoning lands, only a few dozen have reduced themselves in this way. Most of the summoning contracts have only one or two names on them. It is extremely difficult to gain a traditional summon animal."

Sasuke spoke up tentatively, still obviously nervous around the giant feline. "The Uchiha have an alliance with the cat summons."

The tiger tilted her head in acknowledgement. "One of the few domesticated summons out there. Although the cats tend to be more stringent with their tests, despite their ties with a clan. This is why you have the Inuzuka running about with their dogs constantly while you would be hard-pressed to find more than a handful of cat summoners."

"So Kiba's dog is a summon?"

"Not quite, Naruto. Inuzuka dogs are descended from summons, but are not truly part of a contract anymore, though they retain their intelligence and ability to mold chakra."

Kakashi interrupted Sasuke and Naruto before they could question Kikyō further. "So why make your summoning test something so violent and potentially deadly? Sakura is loyal; she didn't need to give up her arm to you."

Kikyō's lip curled. "Still thinking like a dog. The tiger's values differ from your own summons. I didn't need her to prove her loyalty when I could see it clearly for myself. I needed her to prove her resilience and tenacity. Tigers fight until the very end to stay alive."

"And if she hadn't survived? If you had killed her?"

"My goal was never to kill her, but to promote growth by stripping away the idea of her previous weakness. Burn away the dead foliage so that the forest can grow anew. That is why I made the cut as clean as possible and cauterized the wound. Had she died through some other means, I would have mourned her potential and given her back to the earth."

"Could she have given you something else?"

"It was always her decision on what she would offer me. That is not my question to answer."

Sakura couldn't help but draw back a bit when Kakashi-sensei's eye flickered to her. She was firm in her choice - had been since she raised her arm - but Kakashi's questioning made something in her chest tighten.

"I don't see why the cubs are fielding such questions to me in the first place; you have summons. Shouldn't you have educated them on these facts already?"

Kakashi turned back to face the tiger, a bit sheepishly. "Ah, well. They haven't really met my summons yet."

Kikyō stared. Kakashi did his best to remain lax under her gaze, but Sakura caught his fingers twitching. The tiger finally lifted an imperious brow. "You are a summoner, have even been Graced by the dogs, and you have yet to introduce them to your cubs?"

"Well, there never seemed like a good time. And what do you mean by Graced?" 

"The dogs have merged their chakra with yours to heal you at some point. I can smell it on you."

Naruto held up a hand like he was in class, wide eyes fixed on their sensei. "Wait, those dogs on the bridge were real?? I thought it was a jutsu! They even poofed away!"

Kakashi sighed and scrubbed a hand through his hair. "No, they were real. I guess now is as good a time as any to introduce you."

Naruto fidgeted in his seat as Kakashi laborously stood, slouching some distance away before crouching down. Sasuke and Sakura leaned forward, trying to catalogue everything. Kikyō's tail briefly alighted on the girl's shoulders. "Watch the handsigns. When you are well enough to learn, we will go over them."

Kakashi must have overheard the tiger's comment, because his handsigns were much slower than usual. "Summoning Jutsu!"

With a sprawling net of seals and a plume of smoke, eight dogs appeared in the middle of the hospital room.

Naruto was bouncing in his seat, waving excitedly at the dogs in front of them. Sakura was impressed with their wide range of breeds and sizes, and watched curiously as Kakashi-sensei stood and began to name them off, tapping them each on the head as he went. "This is Pakkun, Bull, Urushi, Shiba, Bisuke, Akino, Ūhei, and Guruko. Pakkun is the leader of this little band of misfits."

As soon as the introductions were over, the dogs all burst into a flurry of action, leaping up and clamoring all around Kakashi, most begging for pets but some excitedly asking questions and proclaiming their joy. Naruto was practically vibrating with excitement and Sasuke rolled his eyes as he pried Naruto's hand off of his, unleashing the blonde onto the dogs. Naruto ran forward and dropped to his knees, immediately swarmed by snuffling muzzles and furiously wagging tails. "Hi dogs! Hello! You guys look so cool! Your vest looks awesome! I like your sunglasses!"

The dogs in turn were equally peppering the boy with comments and questions. "You smell like noodles!"

"I like your hair, it's spiky like mine." 

"Are you Naruto? Kakashi told us about you!"

"Your coat is pretty cool, too!"

"You're smaller than I thought you'd be."

Sakura noticed that some of the dogs kept glancing between Kikyō and Kakashi, but most seemed to relax when their summoner didn't seem alarmed. Eventually, the dogs calmed enough for Kakashi to be able to steer the conversation again. "Well team, this is my other team. You've already met Naruto," he gestured down to the ground where Naruto was currently splayed out with Shiba, "but this is Sasuke and Sakura, as well as Sakura-chan's tiger summon, Kikyō."

The dogs barked out more subdued hellos, and one of the dogs, the small pug named Pakkun, padded over to the hospital bed and clambered up, nodding to the Gennin before staring up at Kikyō. Kikyō stared right back, her ears twitching a bit to show that she thought the situation was humorous. Pakkun finally sighed. "So, you got the girl as a summoner. What did she end up giving you?"

"Her left arm."

Pakkun raised an eyebrow. "Seems like she got off easy. You tigers aren't going soft, are you?"

"Must be the proximity to humans wearing off on me. You'd know, of course."

"Of course."

The two stared at each other in silence again, before Pakkun cracked a doggy smile and Kikyō leveled him with a few slow blinks. "Yeah, you're pretty alright. You gonna try and whip this team into shape?"

Kikyō bared her fangs in a pleased grin. "I've already started. Your summoner could use a bit of work."

The pug snorted. "Don't I know it."

Kakashi made a strained noise in the background. Pakkun turned to Sakura, offering up another lopsided grin. "Nice to meet you, Sakura. You got really lucky with a good summon. She's gonna get you far." 

He padded up the bed to climb into Sasuke's lap, who was frozen with his hands hovering over the dog, like he was unsure what to do with the grumbling pug. Pakkun rolled over a bit to look Sasuke in the eye. "You can pet me if you'd like, it's supposed to reduce stress in humans. I'll even grant you the privilege of touching my paw pads."

Sasuke eventually settled his hands onto Pakkun's back, gently stroking the dog as he snuffled into the hospital blanket. A few of the other dogs made their rounds as well, respectfully dipping their heads to Kikyō and coming up to Sakura for pets. Sakura felt bad that she couldn't pet as many of them at a time with only one arm, but they didn't seem to mind. Another strange drawback she hadn't thought about.

Kakashi slumped into his chair by Sasuke's bedside, glaring at the pug. "I thought you were supposed to be on my side. Why are you teaming up with her?"

Pakkun grinned. "This is a great opportunity for you. You never listen to me when I'm trying to improve your welfare, so now I've got a friend to smack you around when you don't take me seriously."

Kakashi dramatically slumped over the bed, face in his hands. "This was a terrible idea. I should never have let you two meet."

Kikyō rumbled a laugh. "Ah, but what would be the fun in that?"

  
  


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Naruto insisted that they have another team 7 sleepover, and began dismantling the cots in the room to form a strange, lumpy pile, much to the chagrin of the nurse who came to check up on Sasuke. Sakura didn't really join in on the effort, even after Naruto roped Sasuke into a competition on making pillow forts. The girl was simply too exhausted. Not that Sakura was physically tired, but her head and side both seemed to throb in unison, and even the most gentle activities had her gritting her teeth to stave off tears. The past few days had been filled with so much panic and fear that Sakura could push past her pain to tackle more pressing things. But now that everything was settled down, Sakura was alone with her thoughts and the pulsing ache of a phantom limb. She watched the boys scramble around through hazy eyes, sitting on the floor and leaning her back against Kikyō's flank. Two of the dogs had settled by her feet, the others either sprawled somewhere else in the room or happily bounding around with Naruto and Sasuke.

Sakura closed her eyes against the fresh wave of pain and tried to will it back into whatever corner she had shoved it in before. But with her eyes closed, all she could focus on was the pain radiating from her side. She could feel her thoughts starting to spiral into panic and self-loathing, and she reluctantly opened her eyes to try and find something, anything, to distract herself. Sasuke had incorporated Bull into his fort, which Naruto argued was cheating since forts don't usually have dogs and that it was an unfair advantage. Sasuke said something snarky in return, but Sakura couldn't focus on the words, couldn't hold on to what she was hearing.

She must have made some sort of sound because Ūhei put his head on her calf and Kikyō pressed her nose into Sakura's good shoulder, beginning to rumble quietly. Sakura was focusing all her energy on breathing, and wasn't that just a kick in the teeth? _Since_ _when did you have to actively try and breathe? Literally everyone can do it, it's so simple. You've never had to_ try _and move your lungs before, so why is now any different? Why are you making this so hard, it's just moving your chest up and down. Can't you even do that? Useless. Can't even breathe on your own. Useless. Pathetic. Why did the tiger choose you? Why can't you-_

Sakura felt a hand take hers gently. It felt very far away, like she was feeling through someone else's body and not hers. Her chest stuttered in its rhythm and it took all her concentration to make it rise again, wheezing and sucking in air that she couldn't grasp. She was sure someone was speaking to her, but she couldn't hear anything over the pounding blood in her ears, heartbeat throbbing in time with the ache on her left side. How stupid w _ as she? That she was going to suffocate on dry land, how ironic. Couldn't even breathe right and she had been making promises to help kill Sasuke's brother. She'd be lucky if she made it out of here alive, never mind making it to - _

Sakura's hand was placed on someone's chest, and she was jerked out of her downward spiral, eyes blinking in the sharp light that she had forgotten was there. She could feel the heartbeat under her palm, a steady rhythm she was desperately trying to achieve. The chest under her hand rose with a deep breath, and fell with a long exhale. Rose and fell again. Sakura could feel their chest rising and falling, the calm staccato of their heart a simple melody to follow. Sakura wasn't really sure how much time had passed before she realized that she had been so focused on the rise and fall of the other person's chest, that her own had begun to mimic it. Gradually, her breathing evened out, the pounding ache in her side overridden by a quiet heartbeat. Her stump still burned something fierce, but Sakura had something else to focus on now.

She took one more deep breath, letting out an audible exhale. Sakura slumped back against the fur behind her, feeling once again the soothing rumble of Kikyō's deep base. Her hand was lowered from the chest, but the person next to her kept holding it gently. She could hear someone's voice speaking and she did her best to try and latch onto it. It took her a few more minutes of breathing under her own power before she felt like she could open her eyes, though she didn't remember closing them. Ūhei and Bisuke were still at her feet, but they were joined now by Bull, whose large form was keeping her hidden a bit from the room at large. Naruto was sitting with the dogs, currently rambling on in a low voice about some prank he pulled once on a couple of Chuunin on gate duty. Sakura looked over to her right and was surprised to see that it was Sasuke who was holding her hand. He was almost shoulder to shoulder with her and looking nonchalantly off into the middle distance, leaning up against Kikyō's foreleg. She squeezed his hand gently to let him know she was back. His head dipped down, but he didn't let go. Naruto perked up at her movement, whispering quietly but excitedly. "Hey Sakura! Kakashi-sensei went to go get one of the nurses, but nobody else has left the room or come in. Genma-san has been standing guard at the door."

She nodded thankfully to him and gave him a shaky smile. Naruto beamed back before reaching down to give Bisuke a belly rub. Sakura looked back over to Sasuke. "Thank you. I, um, couldn't really breathe for a bit but you helped a lot. Thanks."

Sasuke glanced over at her before nodding. "It's ok. I used to get that way a lot too. Just let me know if it starts again and I can help."

Sakura smiled a bit before closing her eyes again and going back to her deep breathing. It was a lot easier to focus now that she had some kind of anchor. Her pain wasn't going away, but it was bearable.

Eventually, Kakashi-sensei returned with a harried-looking nurse who stepped around the many summons on the floor before giving Sakura another dose of pain medication. Sasuke and Naruto were glaring at the nurse for some reason, and a low growl from Kikyō ensured that the woman left in a hurry. Sakura glanced over to Kakashi, who had tracked the nurse with his gaze since the woman had stepped into the room and was now appearing to try and bore holes in the door with his stare. She cleared her throat a bit to get his attention. "Why are you guys so suspicious of her? Did something happen?"

Kakashi relaxed his shoulders a bit before walking over to their little group and sitting down on the floor. "Ah, well, there was a bit of an issue with some of the medical staff here and how they were treating you. Apparently, you haven't been getting nearly as many doses of pain medication as you should have been getting. You're supposed to get a dose every 3 hours, but they've only come in once this morning. Apparently they think that being scared of Kikyō is a justifiable reason to not treat you. So I went and talked to some folks and got it squared away."

Sakura frowned. "So it's not supposed to hurt this bad?"

"No, it's not. But it's gonna be better from here on out. You've been really patient and brave through all this."

Normally, such high praise from her sensei would bring a flush to her cheeks and a grin to her face, but the exhaustion weighing down on her limbs and the splitting headache made her struggle to force out a weak smile. "Thanks Kakashi-sensei."

He gave her one of his signature eye-smiles before standing back up. "Well, I've got some people to threaten and some doctors to terrify. You kids be on your best behavior for Kikyō." Naruto and Sasuke chorused an agreement and Sakura just nodded. With the flash of a peace sign, Kakashi was gone in a swirl of leaves.

  
  


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Sakura slipped in and out of a restless sleep while she waited for her pain meds to kick in. Someone had the glorious idea to dim the lights in the room and Sakura was taking full advantage of it. The boys lingered around her for almost an hour before Sakura shooed them away to work off some of the restless energy they had, both boys throwing themselves back into fort-making with renewed fervor. At some point, Genma slipped out and came back with arms loaded with blankets, much to the boy's delight. Sakura could feel how her pain slowly started to recede until it was back to the dull ache of this morning. Every once in a while, one of the boys would amble over to her corner of the room to check in on her, before going back to their competition. Sakura was pretty sure that they weren't supposed to be stealing gurneys and using medical equipment as wall pegs, but she was too tired to care. Today had been far more emotionally taxing than she had expected it to be.

Kakashi eventually returned, to much fanfare from the dogs. He seemed tired, but made sure to give each dog a good scratch behind the ears before wandering over to Sakura's corner and leaning against a nearby wall. Kikyō seemed to sense something, or maybe she could read his face better than Sakura, because the summon instantly swung her head around towards him and waited for him to speak. "The Hokage has decided to continue with the exams. The matches begin tomorrow morning at 10."

Kikyō exhaled heavily through her nose, sending sparks and small tendrils of smoke into the air. "That is not nearly enough time to secure this tower and the surrounding forest. Does he even have anyone vetting the ninja currently in this building?"

Kakashi, for once, seemed to be commiserating with the tiger. "Apparently this is solely the work of outside influence. I haven't seen any of the current guards here being checked, and I don't think he's going to be making any internal investigations anytime soon, not with all the foreign villages watching us."

"While the possibility of the other villages being in on this event is there, it is miniscule in size compared to the level of internal planning that snake had to be privy to in order to infiltrate the exam. Your Hokage is both a fool and a coward. He will be paying for this decision with his village's blood."

Kakashi-sensei glanced away and didn't respond, but Sakura knew that he agreed.

Naruto took that moment to run up excitedly, his chest puffed out with pride. "Hey Sakura! Come check out our fort! We made it for the sleepover!"

Sakura laughed, amused that Naruto had felt the need to fetch her personality when she had been watching the fort's construction for at least 2 hours now. But she indulged him, taking his offered hand and getting to her feet a bit shakily. Naruto took his job as escort very seriously, and held her hand the whole 10 foot distance to the fort.

Fort was perhaps too strong of a word for the construction before her. A bungalow, perhaps. Or maybe a lean-to. At any rate, Sakura was pretty sure that gurneys were not meant to balance like that and that someone was gonna have to pay for the holes in the wall. But Naruto was beaming proudly, and Sasuke's smirk had a genuine smile hidden somewhere in it. Sakura grinned at them. "It's perfect!"


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura cracks a very important code

It took some time for the team to settle down for the night. Naruto was accompanied by one of the other guards to make a supply run for snacks and Kakashi-sensei was called away for some other Jounin sensei team meeting, dismissing his dogs before leaving the room. Sakura felt a bit odd being around just Sasuke. It wasn't that long ago that she would have squealed in delight at the chance to be alone with him in a pillow fort, but the Sakura of now was just feeling slightly awkward. She wasn't sure how you started up a new conversation with someone when the last thing you two talked about was killing their homicidal brother. Sasuke seemed equally awkward, which helped Sakura feel a bit better. He kept shuffling around and rearranging blankets, occasionally looking over at her. She tried to give him a casual nod whenever their eyes met, but if anything it seemed that her actions were making him even more skittish than before. _Does the sight of me upset him? He has been trying to avoid looking at me a lot. He's probably grossed out about my arm._

Sakura sat down with a huff, leaning her back up against one of the gurneys and doing her best to situate herself at the least uncomfortable angle. Kikyō was too big to fit her whole body in the fort, but she made a valiant effort to shove her head in close to Sakura's crossed legs. Sasuke seemed to keep restlessly pacing around the outside of the little shelter, straightening things that didn't need fixing and occasionally checking in on the summoning pair. Sakura surmised that he probably felt sorry for her and was intimidated by Kikyō.

Eventually Sasuke paused at the front of the shelter and just stood there for a bit. When it didn't seem like he was going to move, Sakura tilted her head in his direction. "Something you need, Sasuke?"

He stared at her for a brief moment. "You're not fangirling over me."

Sakura frowned. _Was this what all that pacing was about?_ "I'm very tired and I lost an arm and I don't want to date you anymore. It was exhausting to keep up that image anyways."

"Image?"

"If you wanted to be friends with any of the girls in school, you fangirl over Sasuke. And I didn't have any friends besides Ino when I started the Academy, so I mostly just went along with it. Then Ino wanted to become rivals and then I couldn't just ignore you, or else Ino and I would have nothing to be rivals over. I guess the habit followed me onto the team. I don't know if I actually wanted to date you, but I did want your respect." 

Sakura laughed humorlessly. "Not that I ever got it; top Kunoichi of the class and you wouldn't even look at me. You just told me how weak I was. It's tiring, and I'm tired. So no, no more fangirling. You're not even that cute anyways."

Sasuke sputtered, face going red. Whether it was in indignation or something else, Sakura couldn't be bothered to care. "Besides, our Kunoichi teacher promoted gossip as undercover intelligence-gathering, so a lot of our crazier stuff in school was an act to get into character or get information. Most of the girls in the Academy were pretty neutral towards you. Some of them even hated your guts."

Sasuke looked like she had just shattered his entire worldview. He looked like a man who had jumped into the shallow end of a pool only to find an ocean. Kikyō turned her head to look at him, and immediately rumbled out a laugh at his expression. "Silly little cub, you did not _truly_ believe that her mask was all of her character?"

The boy tsked, clearly still taken aback but attempting to be more subtle about it. "That's the only way she ever acted, how was I supposed to know?"

Kikyō snorted. "Clearly Sakura will make an expert infiltration artist, if even her teammates cannot see through her facade."

Sasuke didn't grace that with a response, but he did finally sit down, stubbornly pretending his face wasn't still a bit flushed. Sakura generously took his words as a compliment, though she could still feel the slight sting of anger underneath it all. Another drop of metal on the forge.

The air in the fort was draped in companionable silence as Sakura did her best not to drift off to sleep and Sasuke did his best to look cool and untouchable. Their quiet bubble seemed delicate, like neither of them could speak first or the peace would suddenly stop. Sakura let out a long breath and resigned herself to the silence, though she did want to talk to Sasuke. Not like how she used to, with the overly sugary praise and encouragement, but just talk to him. Reach out to her teammate. Part of Sakura always liked rambling on towards him, if only because she never really had anyone to talk to these days, what with Ino being her rival and her parents gone for months at a time. Talking to Sasuke was almost calming. But looking over at him out of the corner of her eye, Sakura thought that this little moment of quiet wasn't worth breaking. He had said she was annoying, after all.

Sasuke shuffled a bit, and Sakura took that as her cue to go back to silently staring at the wall. But the silence was broken by Sasuke, who quietly cleared his throat before speaking. "I don't think you're weak."

Sakura turned to him, frowning. "But you've always told me that."

His expression pinched for a moment. "Yeah, but I was just trying to make you leave me alone. I know you graduated top of the class. I just didn't want you talking to me."

Sakura couldn't help but flinch a bit at that, and Sasuke jerked, hastily correcting himself. "No, not like - I just didn't want you fangirling over me and watching me all the time. It felt like you were always telling me how perfect I was and so I always had to be perfect. I've got everyone in the village going on about how I'm the last Uchiha and how I've got to uphold standards or something, but I don't want it."

Sasuke curled in on himself, glaring off towards the door. Sakura sat up fully, taking a moment to formulate her words. "I'm sorry. For not acting like a better teammate. For making you feel like you're under pressure. I just see how hard you're always trying, and I think that it's really inspiring. From now on, I promise not to act so stupid, ok?"

The boy turned and held her gaze for a moment before glancing down. "Thanks. And … I'm sorry too. For always calling you annoying and weak. You're not. And you're not stupid; you're probably the smartest person on the team."

"Well, between Naruto and Kakashi-sensei, that's not really an achievement."

Sasuke snorted, cracking a wry grin. Sakura's answering smile was all teeth.

Naruto suddenly interrupted their moment by bursting through the door, startling the two as he nearly tripped into the fort with an armful of various granola bars, chips, and assorted fruit. "I don't really know what you guys like so I got as many of them as I could! Then one of the guys in the break room chased me down the hall 'cause apparently I took his lunch or whatever, and my guard was gonna snitch on me so I had to ditch him. But I got a bunch of stuff!"

The blonde dumped his haul proudly between his two teammates and began fishing up even more snacks from his various pockets. "You'd think for a place that's gonna have a bunch of teams in it, they'd have more food, but there's not even a cafeteria or anything. Just a break room fridge and a bunch of vending machines."

Naruto pulled out a tupperware container from inside his jacket, squinted at the contents, then threw it down onto the pile. "Plus, I didn't have any money for the vending machines, so I had to do the kunai trick to get it to drop anything. Apparently that's not allowed, even though we're ninja and it should have been ninja-proofed if they didn't want me to take it."

At that point, Naruto's previous guard came stumbling into the room, panting and dripping some kind of viscous orange fluid from where it was splattered into his hair. Naruto beamed up at him. Genma was nearly howling with laughter at this point, and was using the wall to keep himself from collapsing. The other masked guard in the room let out a suspicious sounding cough.

Sakura laughed as she reached out and snagged herself an orange. "Thanks Naruto, you're the best."

Naruto's answering smile was even more blinding than usual. Sakura realized a bit belatedly that she wasn't going to be able to peel her orange and reluctantly put it back, picking up an apple instead. Sakura zoned out a bit while the boys argued over some bag of chips or another, but was pulled from her musings when the fully peeled orange was shoved into her face by Sasuke. The boy was still arguing with Naruto and not looking at her, but he pushed the peeled orange into her hand before snatching up a few snacks for himself. Sakura felt something warm unfurl in her chest and she beamed over at him. Naruto seemed to catch on, because after she polished off the fruit, he offered her an unwrapped granola bar. Sakura suddenly felt a wave of deja vu, and could almost see the training post on the day of team 7's test. Except this time, her teammates were reaching out to help all on their own. 

Kakashi came back in after one of the nurses gave Sakura another dose of pain medication. He seemed as nonchalant as usual, but Sakura did her best to try and see through it; figure out his tells from his own mask. His fingers weren't twitching, but the line of his shoulders still seemed tense. So probably nothing too serious. He ambled over before raising a critical eyebrow at the mess of snacks and wrappers strewn about. The Gennin looked back up at him, unabashed in their state of comfort and tiredness. Kakashi-sensei raised his eye to the ceiling like he was praying for guidance before smiling back down at them. "So, where am I supposed to sit with all these snacks in the way?"

Immediately, the team began shuffling unopened bags around and stuffing trash into tupperware. Kikyō and Kakashi watched on in amusement as the three Gennin had a bit of a silent argument on seating arrangements before Naruto wiggled his way next to Sakura and Sasuke shuffled backwards to give their sensei enough room to sit. Sakura thought that Kakashi-sensei reminded her of a folding chair: long, lanky limbs tucking into themselves so that he could squeeze down into their little hospital nook. Naruto immediately began to regale Kakashi with his latest snack excursion, and Sakura had to elbow him a few times when the boy started flailing his limbs too much. The space was a bit small, and you could still feel the cold tile floor through some of the blankets, but Sasuke made a few snarky comments about the intelligence of their guard detail and Naruto laughed brightly and Kakashi-sensei was chuckling and looking at them all fondly and Kikyō was rumbling out a laugh and Sakura felt like her chest was gonna burst from the wave of happiness and belonging she suddenly felt. This was her team. _Hers!_ And even though they had a rough start they were all coming together now. Fitting into each other's lives like a strange and wonderful puzzle. Sakura sniffed and realized that a few tears had slipped down her face. Naruto gently took her hand, looking concerned, and the other two shuffled a bit closer as well. "Hey, you ok? Your arm hurting again?"

Sakura shook her head and beamed a smile. "No, I'm just so happy and lucky that I have you guys as my team. You're all really great."

Naruto pressed his forehead into her good shoulder in a mimic of a hug, careful not to shift her too much. "Well obviously we're super lucky to have you too! We'd have been toast if it wasn't for you. And now we're all gonna train together to be the coolest team in Konoha!"

Kakashi reached over and ruffled Sakura's hair. She thought that this might be his way of showing affection after spending so much time with dogs. Sakura looked around at her team, her litter mates, and noticed that Sasuke was sitting a bit farther from them all, hunched forward around his legs as though to make himself smaller. Kakashi must have read the concern on her gaze, because he reached over and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, startling him. Sasuke pulled back from their sensei and cleared his throat quietly. "I, um …"

He took a moment to compose himself a bit. "I - thanks. For saving me. And for what you all promised me. But you don't have to - you don't have to fight my brother with me. He'll probably try and kill you and I -" 

Sasuke closed his eyes, taking in a few deep breaths to steady himself. Sakura and the others waited patiently for him to continue. Eventually he straightened from his hunched state, though he remained distant. "Thank you for your offer, but I have to fight him alone."

Kakashi spoke up gently. "Why do you have to fight alone?"

Sasuke's face twisted, before smoothing back out. He was clearly struggling to try and tell them something. "It's not you guys, I just-" he raked his hand through his hair, "- My … my Sharingan has a second stage. My brother has it. And you can only get it when you watch someone important to you die. And I didn't want you guys to get too close, because getting the Mangekyō Sharingan is the only way I'm gonna be able to beat him and I don't want any of you to die because of me. I don't want to watch anyone else die just so I can get the same pair of eyes that he has. So, yeah. It's better if I train alone for this fight. Sorry."

Naruto reached out to take Sasuke's hand, but the boy jerked away, curling in on himself again. Sakura's mind was racing with alternatives and ideas. She wasn't going to let her teammate suffer, but she didn't have enough information to go on. "How did you get your Sharingan?"

"It was on the bridge, when Naruto almost got hit with those senbon."

Sakura frowned. "So you can only get the Sharingan by witnessing violence?"

Sasuke shuffled a bit, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation topic, but Sakura felt like she was getting close to something. "Well, no. It's activated by really intense emotions. My mother activated hers when her cousin was born, because she wanted to protect him."

The gears in her head were whirring, spinning fragments of possibilities before discarding them and forming new ones. Kakashi looked like he was about to say something, but Kikyō placed a paw on his knee, silencing him. After a minute, Sakura looked up at Sasuke. "How many people have unlocked the Mangekyō?"

"Only a handful during the past few hundred years."

"So how do we know it has to be activated by seeing a loved one die?"

Sasuke blinked at her, but Sakura pushed ahead. "If the Sharingan is activated by intense emotion, it would stand to reason that the Mangekyō is activated by an even stronger emotional state. But the Sharingan isn't only activated by negative emotions. You said it yourself: your mom wanted to protect. So maybe, the only reason that we think the Mangekyō has to deal with death, is because all the people who activated it were fighting in wars and stuff. We've only recently come into peacetime, after all. Maybe it doesn't just have to be death -" Sakura looked up at the shocked faces around her, "- maybe it can be love."

Sasuke was breathing harshly, but there was dawning hope on his face. He spoke in only a whisper. "Really? Do you really think it's possible?"

Sakura met his eyes with fiery determination. "I can't guarantee anything. But I can tell you that I'm not gonna give this up until we find another way to get your Mangekyō."

Sasuke shuddered, his eyes wide and frantic. He suddenly lurched forward, desperately latching onto Sakura's arm and burying his face into her shoulder. Naruto threw arms around the both of them, pulling them in close and surrounding Sasuke with his warm presence. Sakura could feel her teammate trembling against her, and she pressed her face into his mussed black hair. He was mumbling something, pleading _"I don't want to kill anyone please let it be true I don't want to see you die please let it be true."_

Kakashi looked shell-shocked, and Sakura noticed that his hand was twitching up towards his own Sharingan. She locked her gaze with his and gave him a decisive nod. He seemed to reach some sort of internal conclusion, because he scooted forward and placed a gentle hand on Sasuke's back. The boy slowly extracted himself, scrubbing his eyes furiously and still clinging tightly to Sakura's good hand. "No matter what, we're going to be here to support you. And with our resident pink-haired genius-" he winked at Sakura, eliciting a few watery giggles, "- we're going to find a way to get your Mangekyō without having to hurt anyone. Sound good?"

Sasuke sniffed, before smiling tentatively back at their sensei. "Yeah. That sounds good."

Their impromptu group hug didn't break apart, and Kikyō had to move over to the other side of the fort so that the three Gennin could comfortably tangle themselves together. Sasuke still seemed a bit shy about getting close to them, so Sakura let him decide how their dog pile was going to go. After some brief shuffling, Sakura was sitting up with Sasuke leaning his head on her good shoulder, Naruto on the girl's other side with his head pillowed on her thigh.

Kakashi shook his head slowly. "I swear, I got the craziest band of Gennin in the history of this village. But I suppose you're my crazy band of Gennin."

Kikyō chuffed in approval before lifting her head up, settling into a more upright sprawl. "So what have you heard about the upcoming task for the cubs?"

"We have too many contestants to hold all the fighting matches in a day, so we're going to be fielding some preliminary fights to thin out the group. Every Gennin gets to fight in one match tomorrow, and the winner goes on to the final round that's going to be held in a month. Match ups are supposed to be randomly generated, but me and the others are betting on certain fights being rigged. Kurenai is convinced that the two Hyūga's are going to be pitted against each other, and the Kazekage's kids are sure to be pushed through to the final. As for some of the other matches, we're not sure. Sasuke might be matched up with someone weaker to make sure he's in the final; a lot of people are apparently willing to come out to see the last loyal Uchiha fight."

Sasuke huffed from where he was slumped, but didn't bother with a response. Kikyō hummed thoughtfully. "This could make for a rough match. Those Sand Chuunin in the woods that I ate were fairly advanced."

Kakashi frowned, sitting up straight. "Wait, Chuunin?"

"Yes, I could sense that their chakra coils were fairly well-developed, and one of them had large enough reserves to be a Jounin. I was lucky that they thought I was an unintelligent beast, or I would have been in for a much harder fight. That was why I was so confused when Sakura told me that it was the Chuunin Exams that were taking place."

Kakashi rapidly flashed through handsigns before summoning a familiar pug. Pakkun nodded in greeting to Kikyō before looking up at his summoner. "Yo."

"Pakkun, I need you to find the other Konoha sensei in the building and tell them that Sand has falsely entered Chuunin into these exams. I need to let them know so they can warn their team to expect much harder opponents. Afterward, give the same message to the Hokage and report back here."

Pakkun gave a doggy salute. "You got it, boss."

The pug disappeared in a puff of smoke and Kakashi-sensei leaned back, seeming to relax a bit. Sakura could see his fingers twitching. Kikyō heaved a large sigh. "At this point, I am unsure as to how Konoha has stood for this long when these are the types of mistakes being regularly made."

Kakashi made a low noise of agreement before sitting up and vigorously scrubbing at his hair and face. "Right. So. You three might be fighting full-grown adult Chuunin tomorrow, so we're going to lay down some ground rules. One: if your opponent is consistently aiming for the kill, you should forfeit. I'd rather have you out of the ring than dead. Two: if you feel like you're having to push yourself past your limits in order to fight, forfeit. That's the sign of a more advanced ninja attempting to draw out your fight for a show. Three: this is your first attempt at the exam and you're only six months out of the Academy. Most Gennin wait until at least a year before attempting, and some have to test multiple times to make it to Chuunin. Don't get discouraged if your opponent is much stronger than you; they've probably been training for this exam for several more years than you have."

Kikyō leaned forward, sweeping her tail up to settle it around the group. "You are going in at a major disadvantage, so there's no shame in forfeiting. If you can get out with your life, you should. But do not be afraid to play dirty in order to get a win. While your Academy may preach a rulebook, there are no boundaries on the battlefield. Spit in their face, throw dirt in their eyes, use your teeth and claws. Each of you know your own strengths, so try and use them to your advantage however you can. But remember, little ones," 

Kikyō bent her great head down so she was eye level with the group. "Your survival stands above all else. Above honor and bravery and cowardice. You must live to fight another day."

Their sensei let out another sigh. "The Konoha opponents are all roughly on your level, with the exception of Gai's team, who are a bit more advanced. If you're paired up with a fellow shinobi, you won't have to worry about being killed or injured too badly. But every other opponent is an unknown variable. Treat everyone with caution until you can figure out their ability level."

Sasuke frowned. "How are we going to figure that out? What if they don't give us a chance to analyze them?"

Sakura looked up at her summon. "You can sense chakra, right?"

"Only if they're not hiding it. If your opponent is cloaking their presence I won't be able to tell until they use a jutsu."

"Could you try and feel everyone's chakra and see who's the bigger threat?"

"Perhaps," Kikyō's ear flicked sharply, "but most ninja tend to be on their guard around me."

Naruto tilted his head a bit, thinking. "Well, what if you were out of sight? Like your clone in the ceiling? You could hang out in the rafters and send mental messages to Sakura."

The tiger seemed to think it over. "While I have heard that summoners who are particularly close with their summons can feel each other's chakra, I don't think that Sakura and I have reached that state in our brief contract. If I were to try and flare my chakra to her, every ninja in the room would know I was there."

Kakashi leaned forward, holding up a hand and giving a faint smile. "Ah, but I've been healed by the dogs, and I've been working with my pack for over ten years now. I can pretty easily feel Pakkun's chakra, provided that we're close enough to each other. We just have to be in the stands under your location and I should be able to feel when he shifts his chakra."

Sakura could feel giddy excitement buoy her attitude. Their situation might be dire, but they had a solid plan in motion to ensure that the whole team returned in one piece. Sakura could feel Sasuke relax a bit more into her side, and Naruto was sitting up now so that he could excitedly move about without jarring her injuries. 

Kikyō bared her teeth in a grin. "It is settled then. You cubs will fight in the arena tomorrow and you will come out alive "

  
\------------

  
The next day dawned bright and early for the group, though Sakura had lay awake well into the night trying to come up with strategies. Naruto had shifted in his sleep at some point, and was now sprawled over Sakura and Kakashi's legs like an eye-searing starfish. Sasuke had drooled onto her shoulder and Sakura was uncomfortably warm in the fort, but she couldn't remember a time where she was happier. Kikyō was already awake, and nodded in greeting to the girl as she carefully extracted herself from the dog pile and did a few gentle stretches to wake up her body. She hadn't had any pain meds yet this morning, and was forced to stop halfway through her warm up to sit down to focus on breathing properly.

Kakashi-sensei came and sat down as well, having gotten up at some point during her stretching. Sakura was almost positive he had actually woken up much earlier, and had simply been feigning sleep. He sat next to her as she tried to settle herself back into her own body, ignoring the phantom twitching at her side. When a nurse finally came around a bit later, Sakura returned to light leg stretches and started pacing around the hospital room. 

The boys were woken up by Kikyō, who had apparently decided they slept in long enough. She gently hooked her teeth into the collars of their shirts and dragged the both of them out of the fort. Sasuke jerked awake, slipping out of the tiger's hold and face-planting onto the tile. Naruto did not wake up during the initial dragging, and Kikyō shook her great head like a dog, prompting startled yelling and flailing from the blonde. They both seemed half-asleep, eyes groggy and limbs sluggish. Sakura frowned. _They're going to have to get used to early morning missions sooner rather than later. If they're this tired at 6am, they're going to be catatonic at earlier start times._

Kakashi-sensei must have been up early making plans and blackmailing people, because a resigned-looking Chuunin came and delivered food not long after, and the smell of fresh bacon and eggs had both of the boys looking wide awake.

Once breakfast was appropriately demolished and morning stretching complete, the Gennin gathered in a tight circle around their sensei as Kikyō settled in a sprawl behind them. Kakashi clapped his hands together in false cheer. "So! Time to get our game plans set. Sasuke," the boy looked up ", your fight is going to be a bit trickier than I'd like. Due to the seal on your neck, I need you to use as little chakra as possible during your match. We've sealed the mark as best we can, but those measures are only going to work when it's inactive. As far as we can tell, your seal only activates when you use your chakra in some specific way. Most likely when you activate your Sharingan, but I don't want to take too many chances. Wall climbing should be safe though."

Sasuke nodded sharply. Kakashi turned next to Naruto. "Use whatever tricks you've got, but try to end the fight as quick as you can; a longer fight will give your opponent a better chance of getting a bad hit on you. People often underestimate you because of your loud nature, so use that to your advantage."

Naruto gave a sloppy salute. Sakura felt nervousness clinging to the edge of her mind as Kakashi finally turned to her. "Sakura. We haven't gone over half-seals at all, so I also need you to try and stick to just wall-climbing and weapons. It's going to be rough out there, so forfeit if you can."

Sakura narrowed her eyes. "You didn't tell the boys that. I know my limits, sensei."

Kakashi's expression didn't change, but Kikyō let out a rumbling growl and Sakura saw his fingers twitch. It seemed to be a pretty bad tell of his; no wonder he stuck his hands in his pockets so much. "Right, sorry. You're a little genius, so you've probably already figured out how you're going to win, right?"

Sakura couldn't help but puff out her chest a bit. "Obviously. I'll show you guys who's the toughest fighter on the team."

Naruto whooped in excitement. "Oh yeah? I bet you I'm the fastest!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, but joined in. "Mine will be the cleanest fight."

Kikyō stuck her muzzle into Sakura's hair, startling a laugh out of the girl. "And all of you cubs are coming out alive, understood?"

They chorused their agreements. Kakashi eye-smiled. "Well, we've got 3 hours before we head down to scope out the competition. Let's get you all ready to fight."

  
\----------

  
It was 3 hours later, when the team began making their way down to the arena, that Sakura's tentative good luck ran out. Kikyō had wished her well at the door, pressing her large face into Sakura's chest and giving a few calming rumbles. The tiger whispered quietly into Sakura's ear, "Remember, if you are given no other way out, you can always call out to me and I will help you. Your safety stands above our secrecy."

Sakura murmured a confirmation before Kikyō turned and padded back into the hospital room. The summon was going to make her way down with Pakkun later, after some of the foot traffic in the halls died down and Kakashi had a chance to alert the arena guards to her presence. Sakura felt adrift without the tiger there, like she had ripped away a bandage she hadn't known was covering a wound. Even with Naruto and Sasuke bracketing her on either side, Sakura could feel the panic seeping in from not having her summon at her back. She hadn't felt this vunerable since she was out in the forest, and the cold air of the hospital wing chilling her stump only reminded her that she was at more of a disadvantage than she had ever been. Which is why she was on the verge of a panic attack when they rounded a corner only to come face-to-face with team 10.

Ino looked right into Sakura's eyes and smirked. "Think a tacky new haircut is going to help you win? Face it forehead, you'll never catch up to me in the beauty department."

Sakura felt like ice water was just dumped into her veins. She knew that at some point, she was going to have to confront her old rival and tell her about everything, but Sakura didn't think it would be this soon. Part of her mind was analyzing the situation, logically pointing out that Sakura was partially hidden behind her two teammates, and that Ino hadn't taken the time to look her over before speaking. Ino didn't know. But Sakura wasn't really thinking logically. She was panicking because she didn't have her summon with her and Ino had just spoken aloud the ugly truth Sakura hadn't wanted to come to terms with yet. She could never be beautiful anymore.

Sakura burst into tears.

Ino reeled back, startled and shocked at Sakura's uncharacteristic sensitivity. Naruto and Sasuke immediately rounded on the other girl, snarling and clenching their fists. Sakura hunched in on herself, clutching at her baggy shirt with one hand and breathing rapidly. The sobs wracking her frame jarred her wounds, and made her cry harder. Kakashi-sensei began to gently rub her back, clearly concerned but unsure how to comfort her. Her sobs petered off into silent tears as the sounds of loud arguing filled the hallway. Naruto had made several shadow clones and was using them to try and block Sakura from view while Sasuke was hissing out what sounded like nasty insults. Sakura struggled to take a deep breath. 

There was a sudden cloud of smoke, and Ino marched through the makeshift clone wall, popping several on the way with senbon. She started speaking as she rounded towards Sakura. "Honestly forehead, if I knew you were that sensitive I'd have -"

Turned sideways and slightly hunched over, Sakura was giving Ino a perfect view of the large, empty sleeve where her arm used to be. The girl's breath hitched and Sakura tried to hunch forward more, curling into her sensei's flak jacket. She didn't want to look. Didn't want to see the horror and disgust on Ino's face.

There was silence in the hallway as Sakura continued to breathe rapidly. Then, "... Sakura?"

Sakura turned her head a bit, and saw Ino. She wasn't staring at her arm stump, but instead staring right into Sakura's eyes. Ino looked heartbroken, but underneath Sakura could see the stirrings of rage. Her voice was light and calm. "Sakura, who did this to you? Point them out to me and I'll make sure that the Yamanaka know who to look out for. They'll know no safety or rest here in Konoha."

Sakura looked at Ino, eyes wide. She had always known that Ino was a protector, known that since the girl had first stood up for her. But seeing the blonde nearly shaking in rage at the thought of someone hurting Sakura lifted some of the weight off her chest. She could finally breathe. "They're dead."

Ino nodded sharply. "Good riddance."

The girl walked straight up to Sakura, no hesitation in her stride. Kakashi backed up a bit, seeming to realize that Sakura was no longer on the verge of collapse. Ino gently reached forward and took her good hand, pulling her closer. When Sakura made no move to pull away, Ino gently wrapped her arms around Sakura. The girl buried her face into her best friend's shoulder and let her tears flow, clutching onto Ino tightly. The blonde hummed, her arms so comforting in their familiarity. When Sakura could breathe a bit normally, Ino spoke, still wrapped around her like a lifeline in a stormy sea. "You're so brave Sakura, and so strong. You know I'm always going to support you no matter what. You're the toughest ninja here, and you're so beautiful."

Sakura flinched, shaking her head, but Ino kept holding on. "You are, you know that? You're beautiful because you never take shit from anyone. You could beat Shikamaru in a game of strategy, you've got incredible aim with your kunai, you make the best goddamn deserts in the whole village and you're so incredibly beautiful."

Sakura was crying again, and Ino pulled back just enough that she could place a kiss on each cheek. Her lips were warm, and slightly chapped, and Sakura let out a little laugh when Ino placed a tiny kiss on the tip of her nose. _Kami, she had missed her best friend so much._ Ino smiled brightly at her. "Can you say it for me?"

Sakura ducked her head a bit, pressing her forehead into Ino's chest but mumbling, "I'm beautiful."

It was so quiet, Sakura almost couldn't hear it, but Ino must have, because she swept Sakura up into a full embrace. Sakura thought that the flash of pain was more than worth the feeling of her best friend's hug. "Of course you are! And if anybody says otherwise I'll beat them black and blue and dump their body off the Hokage monument."

Sakura huffed a laugh, but didn't tell Ino not to. She found that Ino tends to do what she wants and everyone ends up going along with it. The other girl finally released her, reaching up to run her fingers through Sakura's hair. "I was totally lying earlier, this hairstyle looks so cute on you! And it's really well done! Did you do this yourself?"

"No, Kakashi-sensei did it."

Ino looked her sensei over with a critical eye. "You could have feathered it a bit more."

"I didn't have any scissors with me to-"

Kakashi abruptly cut himself off as he realized he just admitted to being able to style hair. Ino's grin was a touch feral and Sakura laughed at the briefly horrified face of her sensei. Ino turned her attention back to Sakura as she wiped her tears away. She was looking at Sakura with such fondness that the pink-haired girl felt a blush come over her face. Sakura held Ino's hand tightly with her good one. "I think you're beautiful too, Ino."

Ino flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Well of course! We're equally beautiful. It'll be hard for Sasuke to pick just one."

Sakura cringed a bit. "Ah, Ino, I don't really want to date Sasuke anymore. I'm not into boys right now."

For some reason, Ino flushed red, though she covered it well with a laugh. "Well obviously you're way too good for him anyways. I don't really care about him either. We'll just have to compete over who's the best Kunoichi in the village."

Sakura beamed at the other girl. Ino cleared her throat a bit before hooking their arms together and pulling Sakura forward. "We better get going, wouldn't want to miss the final fights!"

Naruto and Sasuke must have been updating Shikamaru and Chouji, because neither of the boys pointed out her missing arm, just gave her a nod and a smile. Asuma, team 10's sensei, was leaning up against the wall a ways down the hall, talking in a low voice with Kakashi. As Sakura and Ino breezed past their teammates, Sasuke fell into step with them, glaring at Ino. "Don't you have other people to go insult?"

"Don't you have a corner to go brood in?" Ino sniped back.

Sakura cut in before the two could go any further. "It's ok Sasuke, Ino didn't know. We're all good now."

He nodded, but still narrowed his gaze at the blonde, who simply tossed her head and committed herself to fully ignoring the boy. Asuma gave her a nod as they passed by, but otherwise the two sensei seemed content to let the girls lead the ragtag bunch to the stadium. Naruto was excitedly rambling to Chouji, who periodically offered Naruto a few chips he was snacking on. Shikamaru acted like every step was a monumental task, having to be prodded along by the sensei who were holding up the rear of their formation. Sasuke flanked Sakura's other side, and seemed to have made it his personal mission to glare at every person who so much as breathed in Sakura's direction. 

The Gennin around Sakura seemed to circle around her in formation as they entered the large double doors to the stadium. They were about 20 minutes early, but several teams were already milling about the open area. A few of the other teams glanced up at them, but most seemed to dismiss them pretty easily. With what Kakashi and Kikyō had said the night before, Sakura wasn't surprised that they didn't see fresh Gennin as a threat. As the waiting area began to fill with a few more contestants, Pakkun trotted past their group, heading for the stands. Kakashi nodded to the three of them; that was their signal that Kikyō was in position. Now, it was only a matter of waiting and watching.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I've finally figured out how to write Sasuke. It took me a while, but "traumatized 12 year old" isn't usually a genre I write in a lot.
> 
> It's Ino!!! I love Ino!!! She'll murder anyone who lays a finger on Sakura!!! They're just babies right now, but InoSaku is eventual endgame. They're so cute.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Preliminaries begin and Sakura has a fundamental misunderstanding of how basic chakra techniques work.

Sakura was relieved to note that most of the other teams in attendance were Konoha, with the exception of the trio of Sand kids and an unknown Sound ninja. _Surely not all of those different_ _teams died in the forest? And why did so many Konoha Gennin make it and so few other villages?_ The Sound nin standing a ways away seemed to find her eyes with unerring precision, and Sakura felt hunted. She shook a head a bit to clear those thoughts. _No, I'm not prey. I'm the predator._

Team 10 and 7 stuck close together, orbiting around Ino and Sakura at the center. The other rookie teams stood nearby as well, understandably not wanting to get too close to the other village's contestants. Shikamaru slouched over to Shino to whisper something to him, and Naruto was waving enthusiastically to the older grey haired Gennin they had met in the first part of the exams.

The small whispers died down as the Hokage entered the arena from underneath the large stone monument. Kakashi patted them all on the head before joining the other Jounin sensei in taking their place behind the leader of the leaf. A few of the teams - the Sand nin, the Sound nin, the older Konoha group, and Lee's team - all arranged themselves into parade rest. But all the rookie teams seemed content to remain in more of a loose huddle. The Hokage raised a brow, but didn't order them into formation. Sakura pressed her face into Naruto's back, who was standing in front of her. She took comfort in their solidarity, even if Ino and the other Gennin didn't know that she had stood up against the Hokage just the other day.

The older man paused for a moment before speaking. His speech was fairly routine, and Sakura recognized his same heavy pacing from many of the speeches she'd heard throughout her academy years. She found herself frowning a bit when he began intoning that the purpose of the fights was to promote rivalry. Wasn't Konoha famed for teamwork? Shouldn't he be encouraging good relations between teammates and other villages?  _ Then again…  _ Sakura found herself focusing on the Sound ninja standing at attention. It suddenly didn't seem to be a coincidence that Sound made it through to the combat stage when so many other villages and teams failed or died. Sakura snapped back into focus when the Hokage called out for anyone wishing to forfeit.

When the silence indicated that there were no dropouts, the Hokage continued. "... the match will be declared when one opponent has forfeited, is unable to continue, or is dead. The electronic scoreboard on the wall will declare the first matchup once all combatants and their sensei have made it into the stands. Best of luck to all of you."

She and Ino ascended the stone steps arm-in-arm, with their team flanking them until they could all gather near the center of the stands. Sakura thought that the narrow stone balconies made for terrible viewing; there weren't even any seats. Kakashi-sensei made his presence known with a light hair ruffle, and stepped close enough to her that she could lean back against his flak jacket. Ino stayed glued to her side, hemming and hawing over the possible matchup combinations and whether or not she'd get paired up with one of the older rookies. Sakura felt her sensei lean down and he whispered in her ear. "Pakkun and Kikyō say hello. They're directly above us in the stands."

Sakura felt some of her tension ease considerably. Kikyō was here. The tiger wouldn't let anything happen to Sakura or her teammates while she was here. She extracted her arm from Ino's long enough to flash a thumbs up at Kakashi before reaching down and grabbing onto her best friend's hand. Oddly, Sakura didn't really mind her palm being sweaty now.

There was an electronic chime, and all of the ninja in the stands turned their attention to the large scoreboard. Sakura was pretty sure that this board was put up specifically to impress the other villages, since this kind of technology wasn't very widespread yet. The board flashed a few rapid symbols before settling on the first matchup.

_ Uchiha Sasuke vs. Yoroi Akadō _

Sakura didn't recognize that name, nor did Ino it seemed, since the blonde immediately began shifting around, looking for the owner. One of the much older Konoha Gennin on the other side of the arena began making his way to the steps. Sasuke hesitated, looking up to Kakashi. Her sensei had his head tilted -  _ like a dog _ \- before finally leaning down and speaking quietly, "Pakkun's giving me the signal for caution, but not danger. Most likely, he's just a much more experienced ninja with a few years on you. Be cautious, and try to get out as quick as you can."

Sasuke nodded brisky before trotting off, making his way down to stand across from his opponent. Even from this far up, Sakura could plainly see the height difference between them. Sasuke's opponent had to be at least 16, if not older. The two stood across from each other as the proctor walked to his spot by the wall. The air was thick with tension, and Sakura felt herself grip Ino's hand tighter. Naruto broke the tense silence by leaning over the railing and shouting "Kick his ass, teme!!"

If Sakura had a free hand, she would have cuffed him over the head. As it was, a few of the Gennin around her snickered, and Sakura could see that the line of Sasuke's shoulders was a bit more relaxed now. 

To say that Sasuke's fight was brutal was a bit of an understatement. Sakura had never even  _ known  _ there was a chakra draining technique! The possibilities of the jutsu rattled about in her brain as she watched Sasuke narrowly beat the older Gennin with weapons and quick Taijutsu. Not one of Sasuke's cleaner fights, but Sakura was pretty sure she wouldn't have fared as well against the man. Sasuke was quickly declared the winner and was greeted to congratulations and a few back slaps from Kiba and Naruto. Sasuke was smirking as usual, but Sakura could see that he was sweating, and noticably paler than before. 

The next few matches passed in similar brutal fashions. Chouji ended up fighting Shino, but doesn't seem to really put his heart into it. Coupled with Shino's chakra-draining bugs -  _ Sakura needed to hop on this chakra draining bandwagon if it was this popular -  _ made the fight fairly short. The Suna guy with the face paint thrashed one of the older Gennin with a creepy puppet, and Sakura made sure to cheer extra loud for Ino when she fought the unknown Sound ninja, even with her heart hammering in her throat the whole time. Though Ino pulled off a really cool trick with her hair and chakra, the advanced Sound ninja was much too fast and ended up winning the round. Sakura breathed a sigh of relief when the older ninja merely held a kunai to Ino's neck, forcing the blonde to concede. Ino pouted as she made her way towards the group but winked in Sakura's direction once back at her side. "Now we've both gotten haircuts in the exams! Though I wouldn't mind if someone helped me trim up the edges…" 

Kakashi-sensei sighed as Ino blatantly stared him down, but he refused to comment. Ino looked like she was about to start pestering the man when an electronic chime turned their attentions back to the board.

_ Haruno Sakura vs. Yakushi Kabuto _

Sakura frowned at having to face one of the older Gennin, even if it was the nice guy from the first part of the exam. She was probably gonna have her ass handed to her. Kakashi paused a moment before leaning down. "Pakkun warns 'caution' and 'unknown'; he seems to be hiding his chakra signature pretty heavily. Be careful out there, and remember, you can always call on your summon to help if you have to."

Sakura nodded, fiercely determined to prove herself in this fight. As she made her way down the stairs, she chanced a look up into the rafters. The shadows up there stretched far and deep, but Sakura swore that she could see a large shape amongst the wooden beams. Bolstered by Kikyō's presence, Sakura marched proudly out into the center of the arena, ignoring the startled whispers and exclamations from the stands. She didn't have time to focus on the attention her lack of arm was getting. Kabuto stood across from her in a relaxed slouch, though his eyes widened a fraction at the missing limb. His pitying smile was not appreciated or returned. "Haruno Sakura, was it? I'm afraid I don't have any information on you in my ninja cards, so I'll have to see what you can do for myself."

Sakura did not respond, too busy cataloging his current equipment, height, and build. His weapons and physique didn't seem to indicate a specialization, though she shouldn't rule out infiltration. The hip holster he had seemed to also contain slots for vials of some kind. Poison, perhaps? Infiltration specialist seemed more likely by the second, especially with his extensive ninja cards and personable demeanor. Sakura would have to watch out for senbon. The proctor, Hayate, paused for a moment before tilting his head downward sharply. "Begin."

Sakura needed to quickly gauge her opponent's speed and level of skill, so she lept backwards, sending out a few well-placed kunai with a flick of her wrist. Kabuto dodged them all easily enough, and sprinted forward to try and get up close, no doubt thinking that her one arm left her at a severe disadvantage. He wouldn't be wrong, but Sakura's blood still boiled at the thought that he could so easily take advantage of her weakness. But his confidence could be his downfall as well.

Sakura drew up on her years of acting lessons from the Kunoichi classes and felt herself slide into her old role easily. She stumbled backwards at his advancement, eyes widening as she frantically tossed out kunai and shuriken, her throws getting sloppier the closer Kabuto got. The boy smirked, bringing out his own kunai to parry a few stray shuriken that had gotten too close. Her throws grew weaker, some of her kunai not even making it to the man. She began to frantically run as Kabuto began to retaliate, feeling her heart rate pick up as senbon whizzed past her frame, always either just missing or barely nicking the skin. She could hear Naruto hollering encouragement from the balcony, but was too focused on the ninja behind her to really listen. 

She saw a senbon coming her way and acted as though she couldn't leap away in time. It sunk into the skin just below her knee and Sakura felt her leg spasm. She was forced to drop her current kunai and rip out the weapon before she fell, which gave Kabuto the chance to shunshin towards her, his punch connecting with her stomach with such force that Sakura was flung backwards almost 10 feet, skidding to a stop in the dirt and wheezing for breath. Kabuto smirked, standing up to his full height. "You're no match for me, clearly. Why don't you just forfeit and save me the trouble of beating up a fellow Konoha shinobi?"

Sakura shakily made her way to standing, edging backwards warily. Kabuto seemed content to stand there in the center of the arena, waiting for a response. She couldn't put this off any longer, or he'd notice. She straightened up as much as she could, still affecting her old persona as she forced her hand and knees to shake. "I'm sorry Kabuto-san, but I've come too far to let down my teammates."

Her smile was full of teeth, and she let herself put a bite of steel in her tone. "And I worked too hard setting up this trap."

Kabuto's eyes widened before darting around the arena. Scattered amongst the white-handled kunai around the man were at least 15 weapons with explosive seals carefully wrapped around their hilts, the white seal paper blending in almost seamlessly with the regular kunai. Before Kabuto could so much as flinch, Sakura raised her hand in a single seal, activating all of the tags.

The resounding explosion threw her backwards, hot wind and rubble scorching her exposed skin. The stadium rumbled a bit, but held soundly. Sakura quickly got to her feet, coughing at the dust in the air. The cloud around her obscured her vision tremendously, and she had no idea where Kabuto was in all this, or if he even made it out of the explosion. She needed to get towards the edge of the arena where she could see better, just in case -

Sakura choked out a cry as a blow to the back of her head sent her slamming into the ground, vision whiting out for a moment and the earth spinning around her. A hand wrapped around her throat and Sakura was briefly filled with panic. But there was no pressure applied. Instead, she saw a flash of calming green, and felt a strange wave of chakra course down her throat, a cool minty feeling that raised the hair on the back of her neck. As quickly as the blow came, Kabuto was gone again, backing off some ways away and performing a simple wind jutsu to disperse the dust cloud.

Sakura wobbled to her feet, her skull pounding in response to the movement and she could finally see the damage she had done. The arena was covered in large craters of impact, most of her weapons either broken beyond repair or melted into slag. But Sakura took pride in the fact that Kabuto, for all his previous posturing, was clearly badly injured. A large patch of burns up his right hip and ribcage looked particularly nasty, with some of the cheaper material having melted into the wound. But for all the burns and scorch marks covering the older Gennin, he should have been more injured. Sakura frowned. The burn on the right side was obviously from the explosive tag that had been next to his foot, but his right leg looked just fine. The pant leg was practically gone and what remained was little more than blackened chunks, but the skin of his leg was comparably unburnt. A bit blistered, but certainly not indicative of an explosion hot enough to melt the fibres of his clothes. Something wasn't right. 

Sakura opened her mouth to call out a forfeit, but there was no sound. She couldn't speak. He had taken away her voice.

Kabuto took the opportunity and surged forward, flashing a kunai towards Sakura's left side that she just barely dodged, the fabric of her loose shirt tearing from the swipe. She hopped and rolled and dodged backwards from his sudden increased assault. Each time Sakura attempted to call out, nothing came except for a wheeze and Kabuto redoubled his efforts. She was down to a measly 2 kunai to parry with, and as she continued to try and evade, she came to a chilling realization.

For a few moments, she stopped attempting to call out and just like that, Kabuto eased up on the ferocity of his attacks.  _ He doesn't want me to forfeit. He wants to keep me in the ring for as long as possible. _

Sakura skidded to a halt as Kabuto did, both ninja stopping to catch their breath and size each other up. Kabuto, despite the burns covering his arms and torso, was not nearly as winded as Sakura was. He was clearly toying with her, and Sakura did not like that one bit. She couldn't call out without him doubling down on her, but Sakura didn't need to call out. She just needed to flare her chakra. But as Kabuto pulled out a handful of senbon, Sakura cursed the fact that nobody had ever taught her  _ how  _ to do that.

Kabuto began his game of cat and mouse once more as Sakura frantically spun ideas. Iruka-sensei and Kikyō hadn't used any handsigns when she had felt their chakra. Iruka's had been a wave that had reached out in all directions, brushing up against them all and reaching incredibly far in order to alert the guards and medics. Kikyō's calming wave of chakra didn't seem to go quite as far, and almost wrapped itself around Sakura in a protective blanket. Both of them had reached their chakra out to interact with hers, though Iruka-sensei's was more of a signal than a greeting. 

Sakura slipped on the edge of one of the craters, and felt two senbon sink into her back for her clumsiness. She rolled forward violently, and felt pain and satisfaction when the senbon were ripped from her skin for the trouble. Kabuto seemed to be growing bored, because he began to Shunshin and Kawarimi around the arena with frightening precision, throwing senbon at her from every conceivable angle, testing her speed and reactions. 

She rolled away from another barrage and came up just in time to parry a few shuriken with her kunai. Clearly, Iruka-sensei and Kikyō had expelled chakra from their tenketsu, but how much? And at what frequency? Sakura was great with chakra control and could very easily expel chakra from her hands and feet to stick to surfaces, but in order to send out a wave she'd have to expel chakra from all of her tenketsu at once. Something she was sure was a higher level skill than what she currently possessed. 

Sakura whirled around just in time to see Kabuto replace himself with a broken weapon by her feet and land another devastating hit. She felt something in her chest give way and crack before he disappeared again, collecting a few senbon from the ground to toss at her. She was getting slower. Her head throbbed in time with her heartbeat and she could feel the places where a few senbon were sticking out of her. She needed to figure out this chakra pulse thing and fast. Tree-walking required the chakra to extend a small distance out of her tenketsu, acting as an anchor into the tree or wall. But she wasn't looking to anchor herself, but spread the chakra out to as far as it would go. In addition, Kikyō had been able to manipulate her chakra somehow to be comforting and warm. Could Sakura do something opposite? Could Sakura reach her chakra out to do harm? That was the principal of Killing Intent, but it only instilled fear in the target. Sakura wanted to instill pain.

She met Kabuto's kunai with her own, doing her best to block his swipes with her Academy-taught defence. All it landed her was a multitude of shallow cuts along her arm and chest. She would need incredible control in order to push her chakra out of every single tenketsu. Even with her mostly-full reserves, Sakura didn't think she could stretch her chakra anchors all the way to her summons in the rafters, but Kikyō was a sensor, and would be able to feel her pulse no matter how far she extended it. So her only issue now was dispersing her chakra evenly and continuously, and finding a way to hurt Kabuto at the same time.

Using one of Kabuto's Shunshins as a means to catch her breath, Sakura began circling chakra in her hands and feet: the places that were easiest for her. She probably didn't have to expel chakra from her whole body, but the more surface area she covered, the higher chance there was that Kikyō saw her pulse. She began carefully circling her chakra up her arms and legs, feeling her own  _ coolgrass-newearth  _ chakra slowly climbing up her ankles and calves and inching up her wrist and elbow and bicep. Sakura could feel her chakra rebelling, trying to slip back into its natural place at her core. But Sakura had not come this far to lose to  _ chakra control  _ of all things. She snarled in frustration, swinging particularly hard on a block and forcing a few senbon back towards their master, though Kabuto still dodged easily enough.

Finally, Sakura could push her chakra no further. Her arm and legs were entirely leashed under her control, and her upper chest was also partially swirling with energy. If she pushed her control any further she would have to thin out her chakra significantly in order to cover more of her body, and she still had to save at least half of her stores to expel. But on the bright side, Sakura was able to evenly circulate chakra in every tenketsu on her legs and arm, and even the ones just in front of her shoulders. She could probably take a running leap at the wall and have her whole body stick.

Kabuto interrupted her thoughts with a few more quick jabs, one of which knocked the wind out of her and almost made Sakura lose her grasp on her chakra. Her anger bubbled and raged just below the surface, and she wanted nothing more than to rip him apart like Kikyō would, to tear his -

Her chakra bubbled forward and almost leaked out, though Sakura quickly reigned in control in order to keep it inside her body.  _ What was that? _ Her anger had caused her chakra to roil and almost push itself out of her.  _ Is this what Killing Intent feels like? _

Sakura knew with startling clarity that this fight had gone on too long and that if she didn't make a move soon, Kabuto would end the fight for her. She needed to channel her anger again. Let her chakra bubble and roil until it was a pit of lava in her stomach and expel it. Preferably right in his smug face. Sakura could already feel her anger rising again, and she let it. Dredging up her feelings of panic and fear and desperation and rage. All of the feelings she had tried so hard to repress swirled in her gut, and Sakura swore that her chakra was heating up her arms and legs. Now, she just needed to get him close. 

Sakura stopped in her tracks, taking a few senbon but refusing to budge. She dropped her kunai. Kabuto seemed to sense the shift of something in the air, because he stopped as well, letting his run carry him into a gentle stop across from her. He was too far away to hit, of course, but Sakura already knew exactly how to get him close. Kabuto narrowed his gaze at her, like he knew something was different about her but couldn't put his finger on it. Sakura encouraged her chakra to spin faster, burn hotter. She could feel the hair on her arm and legs stand on end with the amount of chakra she was holding in them. This was going to deplete almost all of her chakra in one move, but if it worked she wouldn't need to worry about saving enough for a final blow. She had a giant tiger for that.

Sakura lifted her head and glared at Kabuto head-on. Hopefully, her control was good enough that she didn't rip her tenketsu to shreds.

Sakura opened her mouth to call out a forfeit. As predicted, no sound came out, and as predicted, Kabuto lunged forward to try and stop her. But Sakura didn't dodge back. Instead, she lept forward, mouth open in a silent roar, meeting the surprised Kabuto in the middle. Her feet and hand slammed into his chest, and Sakura felt for one brief moment like a tiger, all claws and snarling fangs and fierce drive. Then she shot all of her chakra out of her tenketsu in a blaze of rage and glory. 

She must have miscalculated. She hadn't been sure what to expect exactly, but she was trying for something similar to Iruka-sensei's wave. She had expected a wave of Killing Intent, maybe a physical reaction or a burn of some kind where she was in contact with the older Gennin's chest. Instead, the ground cracked beneath their bodies, a wave of force ripped out through the air and Sakura blew a hole through Kabuto's chest.

The force of her chakra threw her back off of him and she rolled into a crouch, gazing up in horror at the boy in front of her. Kabuto staggered back from the hit, no doubt only standing through force of will. Sakura could see all the way through him. Sakura could see the rest of the arena through the ragged hole in his chest. 

Kabuto's hands scrabbled at the wound, glowing green -  _ healing chakra,  _ Sakura noted distantly _ , he must have been in training to be a medic -  _ before he fell to his knees, gurgling around the blood filling his throat and mouth, dripping down his chin. Sakura was frozen, staring at him. She crouched in front of him like a wild animal, staring in shock as he desperately tried to heal himself. Sakura's ears were ringing, and she could distantly hear the proctor calling the match, but she couldn't tear her eyes away. The hole was growing smaller, flesh and bone and skin healing rapidly in front of her eyes. She had been in the hospital wing for days. Had seen the doctor and nurses use their chakra. But never this quickly.

Through the rushing of blood in her ears, Sakura looked up, from the rapidly diminishing hole, to the face of the ninja in front of her. Kabuto's eyes were flinty and cold, and Sakura suddenly began to scrabble backwards on her hand and knees. Because that was not the face of the fellow Konoha shinobi who had entered this arena with her. That was the gaze of a predator.

Sakura suddenly felt very small and very exposed. The arena was huge, and she was surrounded on all sides by shinobi. They loomed above her and all around, and some instinct made her whirl around and lash out a kick, the ninja just behind her leaping backwards. Her eyes darted around, where _was Kikyō? Where were her boys?_ _She was out of weapons and almost drained of chakra, all bad news for being in enemy territory. These were all probably Sound ninja, and she needed to get out of here fast. The ninja in front of her was now surrounded by others tending to his wounds. He'd be up soon enough, and then she'd be well and truly outmatched. She was already surrounded. She had to find her boys and leave._ The ninja from before was attempting to sneak up on her, slowly inching his way forward. She turned and silently snarled at him, prompting him to take a few rapid steps back. _Good. They saw what she did and knew she could kill them. It wouldn't do to let them know that she was out of chakra so she'd have to keep up the bravado._

A ninja landed a small ways away, well within her line of sight. Curiously, Sakura noted that he had made sound when he landed, letting her know he was there.  _ Either inexperienced or hiding his experience. Probably the latter, judging by height and apparent age. His hair was grey so he was … he had obviously lived this long, but he seemed younger … _

The ninja crouched down to be more on level with Sakura, tilting his head like a dog and crinkling his lone exposed eye in a facade of a smile. He was speaking to her, or maybe he was. Sakura couldn't hear anything through the pounding of her heart and the harsh gasps for air. He tilted his head towards her and seemed to try speaking again. Sakura snarled and tried to tell him to back off, but no sound came out.  _ Right. That other grey haired ninja had done something to her throat. She needed to signal Kikyō and do it fast, because she was rapidly realizing she would not be able to flee this battle. _

The masked ninja turned his head, talking to somebody up in the stands. Or maybe in the rafters? Either way, he was calling for reinforcements and Sakura was out of time. She couldn't speak, and didn't have the chakra for another pulse like that so how -

Sakura could have smacked herself.  _ Stupid. You come up with all these plans and forget literally the simplest things.  _ Sakura leveraged herself into a more balanced pose, placed two fingers in her mouth and gave an ear-piercing whistle. The ninja activity around her came to a stop as everyone froze to look at her. The masked ninja was suddenly hopping backwards and yelling at everyone around her. Good. He must have realized she had reinforcements too.

Kikyō landed behind her with a rumble, her great weight making the ground shake a bit. Sakura was next to her in an instant, instinctively curled into the fur of her chest as the tiger began to let out a deep growl. The noise seemed to fill the arena and Sakura peeked out from her hiding spot to see most of the ninjas scrambling backwards in shock and fear, some of the younger ones in the stands practically cowering. But the masked ninja was still there. He wasn't moved by Kikyō. Sakura whirled around and snarled at him as well, though it didn't deter him either. If anything, it seemed to bolster him, because he began to casually walk forward, shoulders in a comfortable slouch and expression calm. Sakura looked up to the tiger to see what she would do, but Kikyō simply stopped growling, leaning forward a bit and huffing out an impatient breath at the ninja.

Sakura watched the man approach but didn't attack him. Kikyō seemed fine with him, so maybe he wasn't a threat. Sakura should probably -

"Hey Sakura, are you back?"

She blinked.  _ Back? Back from where?  _ The man continued speaking. "My name is Hatake Kakashi and I'm your Jounin instructor. You're currently in an arena in the Forest of Death taking the Chuunin Exams. Sasuke and Naruto are waiting for you in the stands."

Sakura's breath caught. She was … she was taking the Chuunin Exams. Her teammates were in the stands because they had been watching her match. She was surrounded by allies, not enemies. _How long had she been gone? How had she not recognized her own lazy sensei?_ She could feel tears gather in her eyes that she viscously scrubbed at. She wasn't a crybaby anymore. Kikyō rumbled reassuringly, pressing her face into Sakura's and licking away some of the tears that had streaked down her cheeks. Sakura threw her arm around her summon's neck as best she could and tried to convey all her gratitude into her silent hug. She turned back around to her Sensei, mouthing "Sorry."

He eye-smiled at her. "That's alright. That's what Kikyō and I are here for. Now, the boys are worried half to death and I think if we don't join them soon that they're going to climb down here themselves."

She snorted a bit before making her way towards him, Kikyō following closely behind. Sakura pressed her face into her Sensei's flak jacket and realized that she was exhausted and horrified and sad and tired. Also, that her Sensei needed a comfier outfit if she was going to keep hugging him like this all the time. Kikyō chuffed, pressing her cold, wet nose into the back of Sakura's neck and making the girl let out a silent shriek. Kakashi-sensei, being a terrible person, laughed at her indignation and gently took her hand to steer her towards the stairs. Kikyō flanked them, the tiger acting almost as a buffer between Sakura and the rest of the arena. Sakura's breathing was almost normal now, and she began methodically pushing down the thoughts and emotions that swirled in her mind. As they reached the stairs, Kakashi turned to her. "Do you need to see a medic? Was your throat injured?"

Sakura rapidly shook her head. She didn't want medical chakra near her throat just yet. Kakashi frowned a bit, but placated her. "Ok. We'll put it off until after the matches. But we'll need to undo whatever jutsu did this so you can give me a report on your match. Naruto and Sasuke will probably want to go with you to the med bay anyways."

Sakura smiled tentatively before making her way up the stairs with him. Her summon followed close behind, the tiger's warm breath fanning over them and her claws scraping against the rough concrete. When they got to the balcony, almost all the other ninja had placed themselves as far from the stairs as possible, most of them outright staring in shock or fear. But Naruto and Sasuke didn't hesitate to run forward, Naruto talking a mile a minute and Sasuke instantly checking her over and pulling out a few stray senbon. Kikyō rumbled out a chuckle and bent down to lick across the boy's heads, much to Naruto's delight and Sasuke's displeasure. The ragtag group made their way a bit forward before they attempted to settle down. Kikyō took up almost the whole balcony and was forced to lay down sideways so people might be able to pass her. Sakura slumped down next to her like a puppet with its strings cut, far too exhausted to stand and try and watch the other fights. Sasuke sat down next to her on her left and Naruto scrambled up onto the tiger's back to try and get a better view of the arena.

The other Gennin nearby seemed nervous to approach, so Sakura took a moment to herself to press into Sasuke's side and focus on breathing deeply. After a minute or two, Sakura heard the shuffling of feet nearby and Sasuke's disgruntled "Hn."

Sakura looked up and Ino was there. She was staring at Sakura with worry in her eyes and a fierce determination in her posture. "Are you ok Sakura? You got hurt pretty bad out there."

Sakura gave Ino the brightest smile she could muster and patted the ground next to her. Ino looked up at the tiger briefly before fixing Sakura with a smile and hesitantly sitting down. Sakura immediately grabbed onto her friend's hand and felt much better. Kakashi-sensei stood in front of their little group, hands on his hips. "Well, aren't you all just the cutest Gennin team!"

Sasuke scoffed and Naruto groaned loudly. Kikyō's chuff startled Ino a bit, but she relaxed enough to smile up at their sensei. "Obviously. Any team with Sakura on it is the cutest."

Sakura snorted. Kakashi clapped his hands together. "Very true. Now! Sakura currently can't speak due to a jutsu, but she assured me she's well enough to wait for medical treatment until after the Preliminaries. Ino, I'm sure Sasuke and Naruto can fill you in on the giant tiger. If you'll excuse me, I need to speak to a few of the other sensei for a moment. Kikyō is in charge."

With that, Kakashi headed over to the other end of the balcony at a brisk pace, passing the other Gennin as he went. A few of them, namely Shikamaru and Chouji, were close enough to have heard the speech and they inched a bit closer when Naruto began spouting off a tale of Sakura's heroism in the Forest of Death. By the time Sasuke began to angrily interrupt Naruto to correct his exaggerated facts, some of the other rookies had gathered a short distance away, and the rest of team 10 were seated on the ground in front of the railing. Sakura just breathed, giving Ino's hand a firm squeeze as they both relaxed enough to lean back against the summon's flank.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof! This chapter took quite a while to come out because I couldn't figure out how I wanted Sakura to kick Kabuto's ass. Should she summon Kikyō? Should she do it herself? How injured was I going to make her? All pressing questions! 
> 
> Poor Sakura. Nobody has told her how to pulse chakra so she went about it in the most extra, over-the-top way. She's gonna find out next chapter that she technically shouldn't have been able to do that and that extending your chakra out of your body is Actually Not Normal, What The Fuck Sakura. Blame Kakashi, he didn't actually explain how to tree walk so she just started using her chakra like hooks. Hey, it worked, right?
> 
> I've also been dealing with some really rough suicidal thoughts, but all your comments and kudos really helped me! Even through I haven't really been responding to comments, I cherish each and every one and have read them all many, many times.
> 
> Thank you all so much for your support of this fic. It means so much to me. I feel like you all deserve something nice! So if this fic reaches 1k kudos, I'll make a poll to see which character you guys want to see a POV of! I'll include people like team 7, but also Kikyō, Hiruzen, Ino, and maybe a few others. Let me know if you guys would also be interested in me making a few Omakes of Funny Big Tiger Summons stuff. I love writing comedy! Thanks so much!!


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